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Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2022 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/rosettastoneinbrOO00budg
THE ROSETTA
THE
BRITISH
STONE
MUSEUM
AMS PRESS
NEW YORK
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The RosEetra Srone in the British Museum (Southern Egyptian Gallery, No. 24),
inscribed in Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphs, with a copy of the Decree which
was promulgated at a great General Council of the priests from every part of Egypt,
who assembled at Memphis to celebrate the first commemoration of the accession
of Ptolemy V Epiphanes to the throne of Egypt in the year 197-196 B.c., 1.6. in
the ninth year of his reign.
THE ROSETTA STONE
THE
BRITISH
MUSEUM
THE ‘GREEK, DEMOTIC AND HIEROGLYPHIC
TEXTS OF THE DECREE INSCRIBED ON THE
ROSETTA
STONE
CONFERRING
ADDITIONAL
HONOURS ON PTOLEMY V EPIPHANES (203-181 B.C.)
WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS AND A SHORT
HISTORY OF THE DECIPHERMENT OF THE
EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS, AND AN APPENDIX
CONTAINING TRANSLATIONS OF THE STELAE
OF SAN (TANIS) AND TALL AL-MASKHOTAH
BY
Sire
ΑΔ
M.A., Litt.D,
WALLIS
BUDGE,
(CamBripcE), M.A., D.Litt.
D.Lir. (DuRHAM), F.S.A.
Kr.
(OxForD),
Sometime Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum ;
Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences, Lisbon; and
Corresponding Member of the Philosophical Society of America
With twenty-three plates
LONDON
THE
RELIGIOUS
MANCHESTER,
TORONTO,
TRACT
MADRID,
1929
SOCIETY
LISBON,
BUDAPEST
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Budge, Ernest Alfred Thompson
Wallis, Sir, 1857-1934.
The Rosetta stone in the British Museum.
Reprint of the 1929 ed. published by the Religious
Tract Society, London.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Rosetta stone inscription. 2. Egyptian language—
Writing, Hieroglyphic. I. Rosetta stone inscription.
1976. Π. Title.
PJ1531.R5B8
1976
A17'.7
73-16549
ISBN 0-404-11362-1
l=44807
Reprinted from the edition of 1929, London
First AMS edition published in 1976
Manufactured in the United States of America
AMS PRESS INC.
NEW YORK,N. Y.
10003
ne
I1Z7¢
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I :—
PAGE
I.—THE
DISCOVERY
II.—REMOVAL
OF THE
OF THE
III.—SURRENDER
OF
ROSETTA
THE
BRITISH
ROSETTA
ὍΝ
ROSETTA
STONE
Jas
17
TO CAIRO
...
22
STONE
ROSETTA
eee
STONE
STONE
TO
iste
TO
ers
23
LONDON
...
24
IV.—HOW
THE
V.—THE
ROSETTA
STONE
AND
THE
SOCIETY
OF
ANTIQUARIES
...
aie
a6
on
aoc
30
STONE
SOD
35
40
VI.—DESCRIPTION
CAME
THE
ori
OF
THE
ROSETTA
VII.—THE
INSCRIPTIONS
ON
THE
VIII.—THE
CONTENTS
THE
ROSETTA
GHAPTER-
OF
STONE
...
ON
THE
STONE
Soc
Sa
ais
᾿ς
PUBLICATIONS
OF THE
ORIGINAL
GREEK
ON THE ROSETTA
STONE
41
ΤΕ:
I.—EARLY
TEXT OF THE DECREE
II.—ENGLISH
THE
III.—GREEK
ON
CHAPTER
ROSETTA
INSCRIPTIONS
RENDERING
ROSETTA
TEXT
THE
OF
THE
STONE
OF THE
ROSETTA
DECREE
STONE
GREEK
TEXT
ON
vee
S00
τος
OF
THE
0%
49
Syl
PRIESTS
oe
eee
OF THE
DEMOTIC
TRANS-
GREEK
TEXT
66
ΤΠΠῸ-
I.—EARLY
PUBLICATIONS
LATION”
OF
THE
ON
THE
ROSETTA STONE
oe
δὲ
ΝΣ
a
I].—ENGLISH
TRANSLATION
OF THE DEMOTIC
TRANSLATION OF THE DECREE
ΣῈ
ἘΣ
II].—TRANSLITERATION OF THE DEMOTIC TRANSLATION OF THE DECREE
...
τ
ἜΣ
Α2
76
78
93
iv
CONTENTS
CHAPTERS
tas
PAGE
I.—EARLY
PUBLICATIONS
VERSION
II.—RUNNING
ON
THE
CHAPTER
A
THE
HIEROGLYPHIC
DECREE
τς
OF THE
HIEROGLYPHIC
102
STONE...
OF THE
TRANSLATION
DECREE,
WITH
TION
WORD-FOR-WORD
AND
HIEROGLYPHIC
ROSETTA
TRANSLATION
TRANSLATION
11.--ΤῊΞ
OF
INTER-LINEAR
104
OF
THE
TRANSLITERA-
TRANSLATION
...
Ve.——
SHORT
ACCOUNT
DECIPHERMENT
OF
I.—HIEROGLYPHIC, HIERATIC AND DEMOTIC
CHORIAL) WRITING ...
Ἂς
(EN-
II.—THE
BY
THE
BY
THE
EGYPTIAN
IIIL.—THE
OF
THE
HIEROGLYPHS.
USE
OF
PERSIAN
USE
EGYPTIAN
HIEROGLYPHS
CONQUERORS
OF EGYPT
EGYPTIAN
HIEROGLYPHS
OF
PTOLEMIES
AND
CAESARS
IV.—GREEK
WRITERS
V.—THE
INTRODUCTION
EGYPT,
AND
ON
THE
175
177
-..
EGYPTIAN
OF
173
HIEROGLYPHS
CHRISTIANITY
INVENTION
OF THE
179
INTO
COPTIC
182
ALPHABET
CHAPTER
124
VI :—
I.—THE
ATTEMPTS
EGYPTIAN
THE
SIXTEENTH
TURIES
II.—THE
MADE
EGYPTIAN
AND
ese
ATTEMPTS
TEENTH
TO
HIEROGLYPHS
DECIPHER
IN
SEVENTEENTH
doc
MADE
...
IN
CEN-
186
eae
TO
HIEROGLYPHS
CENTURY
THE
EUROPE
DECIPHER
THE
IN
THE
NINE-
ae
we
ase
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
VI.—contd.
JII.—EARLY
TEXT
PAGE
ATTEMPTS
TO DECIPHER
ON
ROSETTA
STONE
AND
WORK
IV.—THOMAS
THE
YOUNG
V.—JEAN
FRANCOIS
VI.—THE
DECIPHERMENT
CHAMPOLLION
GLYPHS
ano
VII.—THE
HIEROGLYPHIC
VIII.—THE
COPTIC
APPENDIX
I.—THE
DECREE
DECREE
OF
GREEK
TEXT:
DEMOTIC
APPENDIX
II.—THE
INDEX
AND
wie
198
HIS
WORK
216
OF
EGYPTIAN
τος
seis
...
Bue
HIEROBoe
ase
see
245
aise
eee
247
ADDITIONAL
III :—
PTOLEMY
CANOPUS
TEXT:
She
ENGLISH
228
cls
CONFERRING
Sot
Heo
251
RENDERING
...
254
RENDERING
...
266
RUNNING
TRANSLATION
281
OF
PRIESTHOOD
ENGLISH
DECREE
ASSEMBLED
BIBLIOGRAPHY
194
τος
ON
TEXT:
EGYPTIAN
EGYPTIAN
ALPHABET...
ALPHABET
HONOURS
THE
HIS
THE
AT
THE
MEMPHIS
IN
HONOUR
OF
PTOLEMY
IV
PHILOPATOR
296
506
400
sles
500
311
317
5
ee ae:
ϑῶρη, Lome μην»
—
eet:
ὧν
ὦ OS
χρῆν
Das
PISTOLS
PUADES
The Rosetta Stone ...
me
... Frontispiece
PLATE
PAGE
I.—The Entrance and Colonnade of the Temple
of Edfi, founded by Ptolemy III Euergetes
Ἐπ
ἽΝ
of
... facing
36
II.—The Great Temple at Philae
IJJ.—Crowning the Athlophoros...
IV.—The
”
46
»
53
Canephoros, or Priestess of Demeter
facing
53
V.—Ptolemy V Epiphanes offering incense to
the gods ...
ee
aac
... facing
81
VI.—Ptolemy V Epiphanes
to the god Khnemu
making offerings
τῆς
... facing
VII.—Portrait of Thomas Young, M.D....
,,
VIII.—The hieroglyphic inscription of Ptolemy IX
on the Obelisk of Philae...
... facing
IX.—A page of Dr. Young’s word-list ...
_,,
X.—Portrait of Jean Frangois Champollion
facing
XI.—Philae.
The Colonnade from the South
facing
XII, XIII.—Coins of the Ptolemies
ADE
between
XIV.—Temple of Edfii founded by Ptolemy III
facing
XV.—The
Decree
lines 1-38
of
...
Canopus,
50
τ
Greek
Text,
... facing
Vill
LIST OF PLATES
PLATE
PAGE
XVI.—The Decree of
lines 39-75 -..
XVII.—The
Decree
lines I-17
XVIII.—The
Decree
Canopus, Greek Text,
dee
BAe
... facing
of Canopus,
Demotic
...
ae
Bee
of Canopus,
lines 18-37 ...
τ
XIX.—The
Decree of Canopus,
lines 38-57 ...
hoe
XX.—The
Decree
of Canopus,
lines 58-74 ...
ΤᾺ,
Ac
Text,
... facing
Demotic
262
266
Text,
... facing
268
Demotic Text,
ΤΣ
... facing
274
Demotic
ἘΝ
Text,
. facing
280
XXI.—The Decree of Canopus, Heep Mhext;
lines I-I9 ...
δὰ
;
.. facing
288
XXII.—The Decree of rane Hieolyphi ext,
lines 20-37 .
Ἐπ
᾿
.. facing
300
PREBRACE
N the ninth year of the reign of ProLEmy
EPIPHANES,
who reigned from 203-181
the priests of all the gods of
UPPER
V
B.C.,
and
Lower EGypT assembled at MEMPHIS, presumably
in the great temple of ῬΤΑΗ, the Blacksmith-god
of that city, the capital of the northern half of
the kingdom.
By whose wish or order they
assembled is not known, but the definite object
of this great Council of Priests was the commemoration,
for the first time, of the accession of
PTOLEMY V to the throne of Ecypt.
The King
was then only about twelve years of age, but
during the six years of his reign under the direction
of AGATHOCLES,
MENES, SCOPAS
SOSIBIUS, TLEPOLEMUS, ARISTOand others, the affairs of the
kingdom had on the whole prospered. The
abuses of the misgovernment of Protemy IV had
been
corrected,
revolts
had
been
crushed,
and
important reforms in the administration of the
Army and Navy had taken place. The King had
spent his royal revenues lavishly on behalf of the
State and his people, he had abolished many
taxes and substantially reduced others, he had
given bounties to every grade in the Army, he
10
PREFACE
had restored law and order in the country, and
had restored all the ancient rites and privileges
and revenues of the priests, and had shown
himself to be pious and a devout worshipper
of all the gods of his country.
All these facts
were universally admitted.
One of the first acts of the priests was to
celebrate the ancient
SET Festival, ees [allan
1.6. the “‘ Festival of the Tail.’”’
This Festival was
celebrated every thirty years, or after any very
great event, or whenever the King wished to
obtain a renewal of his life from the gods, and the
physical and spiritual power to rule with justice
and righteousness, the highly symbolic ceremonies
of this Festival being duly performed according
to ancient use and wont.
This solemn Office
having been performed, the Council of Priests
proceeded to review the good works which the
boy King had.performed, and they decided that
the services which he had rendered to Ecypt and
to the clergy and laity were so valuable that
additional honours should be paid to him in all
the principal temples of the country. They then
drafted in Greek a Decree in which the good deeds
of the King and the honours which they proposed
to pay him were carefully enumerated.
They
further ordered that a copy of it, together with
translations, written both in the modern language
and script of EcyptT (1.6. in Demotic or, New
Egyptian), and in the ancient language and script
PREFACE
11
(t.e. the hieroglyphs or, Old Egyptian) should be
engraved upon a tablet of hard stone, and set up
in every temple of the first, second and third class
in Ecypt.
This Decree, as found on the ROSETTA
STONE, is dated on the fourth day of the Greek
month
Xandikos = the
eighteenth
day of the
second month (MEcuiIs) of the Egyptian season
of PER-T = March 27, 196 B.c. It is doubtful if
this Decree was carried out literally.
We owe our knowledge of the Decree of the
Council of Priests at MEMPHIS to the lucky blow
of the pick of a French soldier called Boussarp,
who in 1798 was engaged in digging down a
ruined wall of Fort St. JULIEN at RoseETTA.
Whilst engaged on this work he dislodged a large
slab of basalt, which, when cleaned and brushed,
was seen to be covered with three different kinds
of writing. According to the late Dr. Bircu,
who received his information from Mr. HArRRIs,
H.B.M.’s Consul at ALEXANDRIA, General MENOU,
who
was in command
ALEXANDRIA,
of the French
troops at
had the slab taken to his tent and
carefully cleaned, and thus saved it from further
injury.
The French savants who were attached
to NAPOLEON’s Army wrote of it and spoke of it
as the “Pierre de Rosette,’ and to-day the
ROSETTA STONE is one of the best known and
most famous monuments in the world.
But the real importance of this Stone was not
proved until twenty years later. In 1818 THOMAS
12
PREFACE
YounG
succeeded
in deciphering
the name
of
PTOLEMY EPIPHANES which is found on it, and he
assigned correct phonetic values to most of the
hieroglyphs which formed that name, and through
these HENRY SALT identified and partly read the
name
of CLEOPATRA,
which
he had seen
on
the
Obelisk of PHiLraE.
The supreme value of the
ROSETTA STONE to the early decipherers was
due to the fact that it contained a BILINGUAL
inscription, and that one of the two languages
of the inscription, viz. Greek, was a well-known
language.
YOUNG was the first to grasp the idea
of the existence of a phonetic principle in reading
the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and, as CHABAS said,
“cette idée fut, dans la realité, le Fiat Lux de la
science’
(Inscription
de Rosette,
p. 5).
Better
equipped with the knowledge of Coptic and other
Oriental languages than YOUNG, the great French
scholar CHAMPOLLION LE JEUNE promptly appreciated YOUNG’s discovery at its true value, and
applied his system of decipherment to the names
and titles of the Ptolemies and the Roman
Emperors, and produced the hieroglyphic alphabet
which is the base of that used by Egyptologists
to-day.
The Decree of Memphis was drafted in Greek,
and about the general meaning of its contents
there was never much doubt. But with the
translations
case
in Demotic
is different.
The
and in Hieroglyphs the
early decipherers
knew
PREFACE
13
very little about their contents, and the so-called
“translations” of AKERBLAD and YouNG were
based on guesswork.
Brucscu’s translation of
the Demotic text (published in 1848) was the
first real translation of it ever made.
As for the
translation of the Decree written in hieroglyphs, it
is sufficient to point out that the phonetics and the
characters and meanings of many of the words
of the hieroglyphic version were unknown in 1820,
and they remained so until the present century.
A new impulse was given to the study of the
inscriptions on the ROSETTA STONE through the
discovery in 1887 of a large granite stele inscribed
in hieroglyphs with a copy of the Decree of
Memphis. The text is full of faults, it is true,
and the transcripts published by BovurIant,
BAILLET and myself were unsatisfactory.
But it
has since been submitted to an intensive examination by SETHE and SPIEGELBERG, and we now
know as much as we are ever likely to know
about the Decree of Memphis.
In the present volume an attempt has been
made to incorporate the results of the recent
labours
of HrEss,
SETHE
and
SPIEGELBERG.
In
the transcript of the Greek text the words have
been separated for the convenience of the beginner. In the early Chapters an account of the
discovery of the RosETTA STONE will be found,
and in the later a short history of the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Hieroglyphic
14
PREFACE
type has been used freely so that the reader
may make himself familiar with the Egyptian
hieroglyphs.
As the Decree of Memphis is the
last of a series of three Decrees which were promulgated by the priests of Egypt in honour
of ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ V and his father and grandfather,
I have given in the Appendix translations of
the Decrees which concern PTOLEMy IV and
Proremy III. The series supplies a very instructive illustration of the growth of the power
of the priesthood in fifty years, 7.6. between
247 and 196 B.C.
The decipherment of the Egyptian texts on the
ROSETTA STONE opened up a new and vitally important field of study to the historian and philologist, and above all to the students of the Bible.
During the past century Egyptologists have made
a study, ever more and more intensive, of the
literature of Egypt, both sacred and profane ; and
nearly all the principal works which help to
explain, or which supplement the Bible narrative,
have been published and translated.
The information which has been derived from the monuments and papyri of Egypt supports the sections
in the historical books of the Bible which describe
the relations of the Hebrews with the Egyptians
in a very remarkable manner, and attests their
general accuracy even in details.
The papyri
have given us access to ‘“‘all the wisdom of the
Egyptians ’’ in which Moses was learned, and we
PREFACE
15
can now perceive the greatness of the administrative and financial ability of JosEPH, the Viceroy
of Pharaoh.
And the historical foundation of the
tradition of the Exopus, and of the story of the
wanderings of the ISRAELITES in the deserts
parallel with Egypt declare themselves.
The
historical inscriptions of the New Kingdom throw
great light on the intrigues which the Hebrew
and Egyptian
Kings carried on against the
BABYLONIANS
and
ASSYRIANS,
and
help
us
to
realize the political condition of PALESTINE and
Ecypt when ΙΘΑΙΑῊ was hurling his denunciations
against the Hebrews, and prophesying the downfall of their heathen allies.
For the use of those who wish to gain familiarity
with the inscriptions on the ROSETTA STONE and
to study them from a palaeographic point of view,
the Trustees of the British Museum have prepared
plaster casts, both white and coloured, which can
be purchased from the Department of Casts at the
Victoria and Albert
Museum,
South
Kensington.
An excellent coloured facsimile in plaster, measuring 134 inches by 10% inches, on which all the
inscriptions have been reproduced accurately by
mechanical means, has been specially prepared for
the use of lecturers and private students. It canbe
obtained from Mr. R. B. FLEMING, photographer,
of Bury Street, W.C.1.
The best small photographic reproduction of the ROSETTA STONE ever
published is that published by the British Museum
16
PREFACE
in the pamphlet The Rosetta Stone, with the
letterpress,. price 6d.
My thanks are due to the Trustees of the
British Museum for permission to photograph the
portraits of THomaAs YOUNG and CHAMPOLLION
LE JEUNE,
the ROSETTA
the objects which
STONE,
are illustrated
and several
of
in this book.
The two Plates (XII, XIII) of Ptolemaic coins
have been made from casts kindly given to me
by Mr. A. P. Reapy of the British Museum.
I am indebted to my friend, the Rev. C. H.
IrwIN,
D.D.,
General
Editor
of the
Religious
Tract Society, for the helpful suggestions which
he had made and which I have adopted, whilst
writing this volume and the other five volumes
which the Society has published. The excellence
of the material forms of these volumes is due to
Mr. H. R. BRaBRooK, the General Manager of
the Society, whose knowledge of paper, printing
and binding is unrivalled.
Messrs. Harrison and
Sons, Ltd., have reproduced the Oriental texts and
inscriptions with great success, and more than a
word of acknowledgment is due to Mr. George
Crane and Mr. S. J. Wadlow of their staff. The
latter set the hieroglyphic type, and is ably
continuing the work of his predecessors, the great
Oriental compositors Messrs. Mabey, Fisher and
Fish.
E. A. WALLIS BUDGE.
48, Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C.1
July 27, 1929.
CHAPTER
I.—THE
DISCOVERY
OF
1
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
HE famous, irregularly-shaped slab of black
a8 basalt in the British Musrum (Southern
Egyptian Gallery, No. 24), which is now
universally known as the “‘ ROSETTA STONE,” was
discovered at a spot which lies a few miles to the
north of the little town of RASHID which Europeans
generally call ‘“‘ Rosetta.”
RasHip stands on the
left bank of an arm of the Nile, which in ancient
days was
called
the “ Bolbitinic
arm,”
in the
WESTERN DELTA, about 5 miles from the mouth
of the river, and some 30 miles from ALEXANDRIA,
which lies to the west. The name Rasuip is that
by which the town is known to the Arab geographers (e.g. YAKUOT, 11, p. 781), and it is probably
of Arab origin, for “‘ Rasuit,” the name given
to the
town
by the
CoptTs
is, as AMELINEAU
thought (Géographte, p. 405), undoubtedly a mere
transcription of RasHip. Whether the Bolbitinic
arm of the Nile was artificial or not matters little ;
it is tolerably certain that a seaport town of
considerable importance has always stood on the
site of RAsHiD,
and
that
its inhabitants
have
always thrived on its sea-borne trade. The
Egyptian inscriptions tell us nothing about the
B
18
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
history of the towns which must have stood
successively on the site, and the early Coptic
writers are silent about them.
In the second half of the IXth century the
ARABS realized the importance of the place as the
site for a seaport, and they founded Rasuip.
Though after the conquest of Egypt by ‘AMR IBN
At-‘Ast in 641 the Arab general
treated
the
Alexandrians with great consideration, the prosperity of ALEXANDRIA declined rapidly, and much
of her trade passed into the hands of the merchants
in the other seaports of the DELTA.
In 960, the
Khalifah Mu‘1zz founded the city of AL-KAHIRA,
or CAIRO.
ALEXANDRIA ceased to be a great
trading
centre,
and
most
of her maritime
com-
merce found its way to the newly founded Arab
towns of RAsHfp and to DAMIETTA, in the EASTERN
Detta. The trade of Rasuip grew rapidly, her
merchants became wealthy, and the outskirts of
the town became filled with large houses, many of
which stood in gardens and plantations filled with
vines and fruit-bearing trees.
Several mosques
were built, and many learned men founded their
homes at RASH{iD, and wrote voluminous works on
the Kur’AN and Muhammadan traditions.
The
prosperity of the town was abruptly arrested by
the discovery of the new route to INDIA round the
Cape of Good Hope, by Vasco DA GAMA in 1497,
and by the Portuguese victories in the Red Sea.
But the trade of the port was very considerable
THE
DISCOVERY
19
during the XVIth, XVIIth, and XVIIIth centuries.
The death-blow to the prosperity of the town was
given by MuHAMMAD ‘ALi, who in 181g began to dig
the Mahmudiyah Canal, which connected CAIRO
with ALEXANDRIA, and so caused the diversion
of the trade of RAsHiD to ALEXANDRIA.
At the present time the inhabitants of Rasufp
are about 15,000 in number, and are chiefly
Musitims and GREEKS.
In some of the larger
houses the visitor will see ancient stone columns
and slabs built into the walls, and in the Mosque
of SAKHLUN there are many more pillars. These
were never hewn by the Arabs, and an examination
of them shows that they were brought to their
present places from some Egyptian or EgyptoPtolemaic buildings in or near one of the ancient
towns that stood on the site. It is well known
from classical sources that the branch of the river
which flows by the town was called the “ Bolhbitinic arm”’ of the NILE, and we may therefore
assume that these pillars came from buildings in
the town of BOLBITINE, which is mentioned by
HEcATAEUS and Dioporus as having stood on
the river. Of the town of BOLBITINE nothing is
known, and we can only speculate as to the causes
which led to the disappearance of a populous and
apparently well-to-do town. The inscribed remains of Egyptian buildings found in the neighbourhood suggest that the town called BOLBITINE
by the Greeks
was a flourishing market-centre
B2
20
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
under the Pharaohs of the XXVIth Dynasty, and
its downfall may well have been brought about
by the founding of ALEXANDRIA, some 35 miles
distant. And again, the silting up of the arm of
the NILE may have made it impossible for seagoing ships to reach the town.
From the phrase
βολβίτινον appa, which is quoted by STEPHANUS of
BYZANTIUM (Vth century), it would seem that the
chariots made there were famous throughout the
East. A town of the size and importance of
BOLBITINE must have had at least one temple,
and it is very possible, as CHAMPOLLION thought
(L’Egypte sous les Pharaons, vol. ii, p. 241), that
the ROSETTA STONE stood in the great temple of
that town.
The exact circumstances under which the Stone
was discovered are not
known, and
there is some
doubt as to the name of its discoverer. There is
no doubt that it was found in August, 1799, whilst
the French, who had occupied ROSETTA in 1708,
were engaged in repairing or adding to the fortifications which lay to the north of the town.
One
account says that the discoverer was a French
Officer of Engineers called BoussarRD, who may
perhaps be identified with the distinguished French
General Baron A. J. Boussarp, who played a
prominent part in NAPOLEON’s Expedition to
Egypt, and who died in 1812. Another account
says that it was found by one BoucHARD, who
discovered the Stone by striking it accidentally
THE
with
his pick;
DISCOVERY
if this
be
so,
21
BOUCHARD
was
probably one of the soldiers who were working at
the reconstruction of Fort St. JULIEN under the
direction of General Boussarp.
It has been
stated that BoucHARD found the Stone lying loose
on the ground,
but it is also said that when
he
struck it with his pick it was built into an ancient
wall, the demolition
of which had been decided
upon.
In either case it seems tolerably certain
that the Stone had been removed from the temple
in which it had been set up, and used in building
the wall which the French were demolishing.
When this was done it is impossible to say, but
the fortifications of ROSETTA were old and in a
ruined state when the French came there, and it is
probable that they formed part of a famous
system of defence works which the Khalifah
AL-ASHRAF KAnsOH AL-GHUrRi constructed at
ALEXANDRIA and Rasuip between 1501 and 1516.
The late Dr. Bircu said, “ The Stone appears to
have been placed in a temple dedicated to Tum
or Tomos, the setting Sun, originally erected in
the reign of NECTANEBO”’ (1.6. during the first
half of the IVth century B.c.), but I cannot find
out what his authority for the statement was.
On the other hand, Mr. Harris, formerly H.B.M.’s
Consul at ALEXANDRIA, repeating a tradition
current in his day, said that the Stone had
originally stood in a temple built by NEcuHo, the
PHARAOH NECHO of the Bible (X XVIth Dynasty).
22
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
II.—REMOVAL OF THE ROSETTA STONE TO CAIRO
Soon after its discovery the ROSETTA STONE
was taken to Cairo and placed in the INSTITUT
NATIONAL, where a considerable number of large
and important antiquities had been collected by
the savants whom NAPOLEON had taken to Egypt
with him, and by native agents throughout the
country.
As soon as the savanis returned from
ὌΡΡΕΚ Ecyrt to Cairo they examined the Stone,
and quickly realized its importance. NAPOLEON
the Great, who was among the first who saw it,
regarded it with the keenest interest, and “in
order to satisfy the curiosity of the literati in
every country, gave orders to have the inscription
engraved immediately’ (Gentleman’s Magazine,
vol. Ixxi, 1801, p. 1194). Two expert lithographers ‘“‘ Citoyens MARCEL et GALLAND”’ were
summoned
from
Paris
in haste, and
‘they made
copies of the texts on the Stone by inking it with
printer’s ink and rolling sheets of paper over it.
Not content with this, “‘ Citoyen RAFFINEAU ”’ was
ordered by NAPOLEON to make a sulphur cast of
the Stone for the use of Professor AMEILHON of
Paris, whom NAPOLEON ordered to translate the
Greek text.
In the autumn of 1801, General
Ducuas ~ Lun .des guerriers qui, dans la mémo-
rable expédition d’Egypte,
ont si glorieusement
1 Charles Frangois Joseph Dugua was born at Toulouse
in 1740, and died as the result of a wound received at
St. Domingo in 1802.
SURRENDER
TO
THE
BRITISH
servi sous les Héros de la France’’;
23
returned
to
Paris and took with him two copies of the inscriptions on the ROSETTA STONE made by “ Citoyens
MARCEL
et GALLAND,”
and presented them to the
INSTITUT NATIONAL of PARIS.
III.—SURRENDER
OF
THE
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
TO
BRITISH
Meanwhile the British forces had gained many
victories over the French in Egypt, and after the
capitulation of ALEXANDRIA, ‘all the antiquities
which the French had collected in Carro and
ALEXANDRIA, and had packed up ready for
transport
to
PARIS,
were
surrendered
to them.’
Under Article XVI of the Treaty of Capitulation,
General HUTCHINSON took possession of them, and
despatched them to England at the end of the
year 1801. The famous Stone, which even at the
time was generally known as the ROSETTA STONE,
was among them, and it arrived in England in
February, 1802 ; and, asa
result of the description
of it published in Paris by “ Citoyen Du THEIL,”
created a great sensation.
The copies of the
inscriptions which General Ducua had taken to
Paris were
committed
to the care of '‘ Citoyen
Du THEIL,” who read the Greek text at once, and
forthwith declared that the Stone was a “‘ monument of the gratitude of some priests of ALEXANDRIA, or some neighbouring place, towards
PTOLEMY EPIPHANES.”’
He went on to say that
24
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
‘the first and second texts on the Stone contained
repetitions of the contents of the Greek, and that,
as the last line but one of the Greek text ordered
that a copy of the decree of the priests was to be
inscribed upon a hard stone stele “in sacred
letters, and in letters of the country, and in Greek
letters,’
ΚΑΙ
ΤΟΙ͂Σ
EAAHNIKOIZ
TE
ΙΕΡΟΙΣ
KAI
FPAMMAZIN,
ΕΓΧΩΡΙΟΙΣ
the
first
text
on the Stone must be written in HIEROGLYPHS}
and the second in ENCHORIAL characters.
These
statements at once drew the attention of learned
men throughout the world to the Stone, for it
was clear that by means of the Greek text it would
probably be possible to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs and also the enchorial script of EGYPT.
IV.—HOW THE ROSETTA STONE CAME TO LONDON
The story of the transport of the Stone to
England was told by Major-General H. TayLor
in a letter addressed by him to NICHOLAS CARLISLE,
Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries,
London,
and printed in Archaeologia, vol. XVI, London,
1812, pp. 212 ff. This letter reads :—
“The Rosetta STONE having excited much
attention in the learned world, and in this Society
in particular, I request to offer them, through you,
some account of the manner it came into the
possession of the British Army, and by what means
it was brought to this country, presuming it may
not be unacceptable to them.
HOW
THE
STONE
CAME
TO
LONDON
25
“ΒΥ the sixteenth article of the Capitulation of
Alexandria, the siege of which terminated the
labours of the British Army in Egypt, all the
curiosities, natural and artificial, collected by the
French Institute and others, were to be delivered
up tothe captors. This was refused on the part of
the French General to be fulfilled, by saying they
were all private property.
Many letters passed ;
at length, on consideration that the care in preserving the insects and animals had made the
property in some degree private, it was relinquished by Lord Hutcuinson ; but the artificial,
which consisted of antiquities and Arabian manuscripts, among the former of which was the
ROSETTA STONE, was insisted upon by the noble
General with his usual zeal for science. Upon
which I had several conferences with the French
General MENOU, who at length gave way, saying
that the ROSETTA STONE was his private property,
but, as he was forced, he must comply as well as
the other proprietors.
I accordingly received from
the Under-Secretary of the Institute, LE PERE, the
Secretary FOURIER being ill, a paper, containing a
list of the antiquities,
with
the names
of the
claimants of each piece of Sculpture; the Stone
is there described as black granite, with three
inscriptions, belonging to General MENOU.
“From the French scavans I learnt, that
the ROSETTA STONE was found among the ruins
of Fort St. JULIEN, when repaired by the French
26
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
and put in a state of defence ; it stands near the
mouth of the Nile, on the Rosetta branch, where
are, in all probability,
the pieces broken
off.
I was also informed, that there was a stone similar
at MENOUF, obliterated, or nearly so, by the
earthen jugs being placed on it, as it stood near
the water ; and that there was a fragment of one,
used and placed in the walls of the French fortifications of Alexandria.
This Stone was carefully
brought to General MENov’s house in Alexandria,
covered with soft cotton cloth and a double
matting when I first saw it. The General had
selected this precious relic of antiquity for himself.
When it was understood by the French Army
that we were to possess the antiquities, the
covering of the Stone was torn off, and it was
thrown upon its face, and the excellent wooden
cases of the rest were broken off; for they had
taken infinite pains in the first instance to secure
and preserve from any injury all the antiquities.
I made
several
remonstrances,
but
the
chief
difficulty I had was on account of this Stone, and
the great sarcophagus, which at one time was
positively refused to be given up by the CAPITAN
Pasua, who had obtained it by having possession
of the ship it had been put on board of by the
French.
I procured, however, a centry on the
beach from Mon. LE Roy, prefect maritime, who,
as well as the General, behaved with great civility ;
the reverse I experienced from some others.
HOW
THE
STONE
CAME
TO
LONDON
27
“When I mentioned the manner the Stone had
been treated to Lord HutcuInson, he gave me
a detachment of artillerymen, and an artilleryengine, called from its powers a devil-cart, with
which that evening I went to General MENOoU’s
house,
and
carried
off the
Stone,
without
any
injury, but with some difficulty, from the narrow
streets to my house, amid the sarcasm of numbers
of French officers and men ; being ably assisted by
an intelligent sergeant of artillery, who commanded the party, all of whom enjoyed great
satisfaction in their employment ; they were the
first British soldiers who entered Alexandria.
During the time the Stone remained in my house
some gentlemen attached to the corps of scavants
requested to have a cast, which I readily granted,
provided the Stone should receive no injury;
which cast they took to Paris, leaving the Stone
well cleared from the printing-ink which it had
been covered with to take off several copies to send
to France,
when it was first discovered.
“Having seen the other remains of Egyptian
sculpture sent on board the Admiral by Sir
RICHARD
BICKERTON’S
ship,
the
Madras,
who
kindly gave every possible assistance, I embarked
with the Rosetta STONE, determining to share its
fate, on board the Egyptienne frigate, taken in the
harbours of Alexandria, and arrived at Portsmouth
in February, 1802. When the ship came round to
Deptford, it [¢.e. the Stone] was put in a boat
28
and
landed
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
at the
Custom
House;
and
Lord
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, the then Secretary of State,
acceded to my request, and permitted it to remain
some time at the apartments of the Society of
Antiquaries, previous to its deposit in the British
Museum, where I trust it will long remain, a most
valuable relic of antiquity, the feeble but only
yet discovered link of the Egyptian to the known
languages, a proud trophy of the arms of Britain
(I could almost say spolia optima), not plundered
from defenceless inhabitants, but honourably
acquired by the fortune of war.
[Signed] “Η. TURNER, Major-General.”
An interesting note on the other antiquities sent
to LONDON may be quoted from the Gentleman’s
Magazine (vol. Ixxii, 1802, p. 726). ‘“‘ The various
Egyptian antiquities collected by the French
Army, and since become the property of the
conquerors, have been lately conveyed to the
British Museum, and may be seen in the outer
court of that building. Many of them were so
extremely massive, that it was found necessary
to make wooden frames for them. They consist
of an immense bath of granite, about ro feet long,
and 5 feet deep and over, covered within and
without with hieroglyphics; another bath of
smaller dimensions equally adorned; a granite
coffin with the shape of the head, and covered all
over with hieroglyphicks; a hand clenched, the
HOW
THE
STONE
CAME
TO
LONDON
29
statue belonging to which must have been 150 feet
high ; two statues in white marble, in Roman
habits, one of them without a head, the features
of the other much defaced ; the head of a ram, in
reddish stone, measuring about 4 feet from the
nose to the crown of the head, and every way
proportionate, the right horn broken off ; several
human figures sitting, with the heads of beasts,
and in the left hand the crux ansata, or cross, with
a handle and ring ; similar heads without bodies ;
two marble obelisks, the four sides charged with
hieroglyphicks ; a large cylindrical pillar of granite,
measuring 12 feet in length, and 34 feet in
diameter. The smaller bath weighs about τὰ tons,
and there were 11 horses to draw it to the Museum ;
the larger only g tons, the stone not being so
massive, required only g horses. The whole
weight of the collection is calculated at about
50 tons.”’
The granite “bath” ery Aue above is
the sarcophagus of HAP-MEN ἐξ La, ΤΟΥ͂Δ]
scribe and director of granaries. Tes length is
Guicevm
width
e4avite7.in-sleionts
Ὁ εἶν, τοῖν πὰς
and it weighs about 7 tons 4 cwts.
It was found
in CAIRO, where it had been used as a tank, anda
hole was cut in one end of it to allow the muddy
sediment to run out.
[B.M. No. 826 (23).]
The
other “‘ bath ”’ is the sarcophagus of NEKHT-HERHEBIT MERI AMEN | f on IN Gir
King of
30
THE
ROSE ITASSTONE
Egypt, about 378 B.c.
It has often been called
the ‘sarcophagus of ALEXANDER THE GREAT.”
The two obelisks [B.M. Nos. 523 and 524] were
made by the same king, and having been taken to
Carro from a town in the DELTA stood for some
years before one of the mosques.
The granite
coffin, ‘“‘ with the shape of the head,’ is now
No. 882 (66); the “ hand clenched ”’ is the left
fist from
a
(No. 596);
colossal
statute
the “head
of
of
Rameses
a ram”
is the
II
head
of a ram-headed sphinx from the AVENUE OF
SPHINXES at KARNAK [B.M. No. 550 (7)], and the
“figures with the heads of beasts” are statues
of the goddess SEKHMIT from KARNAK [No. 405
(88), etc.]. These and many other objects were
presented to the British Museum by KING
GEORGE
III
in
1802;
a list of them
is given
in A Guide to the Egyptian Galleries (Sculpture),
London, 1900, p. xv.
V.—THE
ROSETTA
OF
STONE
AND
THE
SOCIETY
ANTIQUARIES
We have seen above (p. 23) that ‘‘ Citoyen
DU THEIL ᾿᾿ informed the learned world in Paris
about the nature of the contents of the inscriptions
on the ROSETTA STONE as soon as he received the
copies of them, which were brought to him from
Ecypt by General Ducua, and that he described
correctly the three kinds of writing found on the
Stone. This he did apparently before any English
THE
SOCIETY
OF
ANTIQUARIES
31
scholar had the opportunity of reading the texts,
and the credit of being the first to discover why,
and when,
and where,
and
in whose
honour
the
Stone was set up, undoubtedly belongs to the
French.
We may now see what steps were taken by the
British to make the Stone available for study
when it arrived in London.
In his “ Account of
the Rosetta Stone, in three languages, which was
brought to England in the year 1802’ MATTHEW
RAPER says: “On the eleventh of March in the
year 1802 the Society of Antiquaries received a
letter from GRANVILLE PENN, Esq., informing
them that, by the desire of Lord Hosart, he had
forwarded two cases for the inspection of the
Society, and that he wished them to remain in
their custody till he could give further directions
for the removal of them to the British Museum.
On the same day a letter was received from
Colonel TURNER, stating that he had brought the
Stone, together with the statues, all contained in
the two cases above mentioned, from EGYPT; and
describing the means by which they came into his
possession.
[For this letter, see above, p. 24 f.]
In the month of April following, the Rev. STEPHEN
Watson (a Fellow of this Society) presented a
short translation of the Greek inscription on the
Stone,
with
some
critical
remarks
thereon.
In
July the Society ordered four casts of the Stone
to be made by Mr. Papera, in plaster of Paris, and
32
THE
ROSEITA
STONE
these were to be sent, properly packed up in cases,
to the Universities of OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN, accompanied by a letter to
each from the Secretary. A facsimile of the
Greek inscription was engraved and a copy of it
was sent to General Garth, for His Majesty.
Copies were also distributed to the Fellows of the
Society, and others were forwarded to the following
places, in addition to those foreign Universities, to
which the Society usually sent presents of their
works.
Toe {πὸ Vatican...
To. the Society de
Propaganda Fide. To Cardinal Borgia at Rome.
To the Imperial Library at Vienna. To the
Imperial Society of Petersburgh. Tothe Academy
at Berlin. To the National Institute. To the
National Library at Paris. To the Royal Society
of Antiquaries at Copenhagen.
To the University
at Upsala. To the Academy at Madrid. To the
Royal Library at the Escurial. To the Academy
of Science at Lisbon. To the Philosophical Society
at Philadelphia. To the University at Leyden.
“The Society hoped to have been favoured, in
return, with some translations or communications
on so valuable a relic of antiquity ; containing so
much
matter
for remarks,
on
the circumstances
mentioned in the inscription; at least it might
have been expected that some Members of the
learned foreign Societies would have endeavoured
to fill up the lacunae occasioned by the fracture
ofthe Stone. No intelligence, however, of any kind
THE
SOCIETY
OF ANTIQUARIES
33
being received, Mr. WESTON presented a full
translation of the Greek inscription, which was
read to the Society at their Meeting on the fourth
day of November,
1802, wherein
the deficiencies,
occasioned by the fractures, were very ably
supplied. On the eleventh of November following,
the
Secretary
received
a letter,
written
in the
French language, enclosing one to the Society, in
Latin, accompanied by a Latin version of the
Greek inscription, with a considerable number of
learned remarks thereon, from Professor HEYNE,
of the University of Gottingen. This translation
comes very near, but it is not exactly the same,
with that presented by the Rev. STEPHEN WESTON ;
as both translations will be printed at length, the
reader will have an opportunity of forming his own
opinion which of the two comes nearer to the
original.
“On the second day of December of the
same year [1802], our learned Member, TAYLOR
ComBE, Esq., sent a letter, with a most elaborate
and instructive dissertation on the inscription,
which were read to the Society at their Meetings,
proving that the Decree of the Priests, in honour
of Ptolemy Epiphanes, was not published in his
lifetime.
Ptolemy
Mr. ComMBE also sent
Philometor, taken from
a portrait of
a unique coin
in the French Cabinet, as a proper accompaniment
to his memorial.
On the thirteenth of January,
1803,
Mr.
WESTON
presented
to the
Society
C
a
34
THE
ROSETTA-SIONE
paper, containing the words, and parts of words,
which he supposed had filled up the vacancies
occasioned by the fractures on the Stone; and
on the same day Professor Porson presented one
similar to it, accompanied by the Latin letter
engraved on the plate of the facsimile of those
letters, written thereon by the Professor himself,
as his conjectural restorations of the lost parts of
the Greek inscription; either of which might
serve to supply what is wanting ; but as only one
is necessary, Mr. Professor PORSON’s was delivered
to the engraver in order to its being executed in
such a manner as to correspond with the former
facsimile engraving of the Greek inscription. . .
“Seven years having now elapsed since the
receipt of the last communication to the Society
on
this subject,
there
is little
reason
to expect
that any further information should be received :
the Society therefore resolved to gratify the
curiosity of the learned, by publishing in their next
volume of Archaeologia, all the particulars relating
to this very interesting monument.
It would
have appeared sooner, had it not been judged
advisable to give sufficient time for any additional
matter to come in, in order that the publication
might be rendered as complete as possible. They
now present it to the public, with the hope that it
may fully answer their expectation ; and, in order
to accommodate such persons as may be desirous
of possessing 80 curious a piece of ancient history,
DESCRIPTION
35
the Society have determined to print, separate from
the Archaeologia, so many copies of it, as may be
supposed necessary for the supply of such demand.
[Signed] “‘ Matt. RAPER.”
[From Archaeologia, London, 1812, vol. xvi, p. 208 f.]
VI.—DESCRIPTION
OF
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
The ROsETTA STONE is an irregularly shaped
slab of compact black basalt which is about
Salt, Ou. in length Φ ft. 4%. in. in width,and
Ir inches in thickness.
The top right- and
left-hand corners, and the right-hand bottom
corner are wanting ; the missing portions of the
slab were carefully sought for immediately after
its discovery, but were never found. This fact
suggests that the slab was broken in transit from
the place where it stood to the wall in which it
was found built up. How much of the upper part
of the Stone is missing cannot be said, but judging
by the proportion which exists between the lengths
of the inscriptions which are preserved upon it,
we may assume that when the Stone was complete,
it was from 18 to 24 inches longer than it is at
present. There is every reason for believing that
the Stone,
when
complete,
resembled
in general
form and appearance the other Stelae which were
set up in honour of Ptolemy III, and Ptolemy IV,
and Ptolemy V by the priesthood of Egypt
assembled
at MEMPHIS
and
Canopus.
And
CZ
all
36
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
these in turn resembled the famous STELE OF
PitHom, which ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ II set up to record his
triumphs and exploits.
[THE
RELIEFS
PLOLEMY
τ
SCULPTURED
ON
PLOLE MY
SANDS ῬΤΘΕΕΝΥ.
St
THE
STELAE
OF
Iv]
On the flat surface of the rounded top of the
STELE OF PITHOM are sculptured two scenes :—
1. Protemy II, in official regal attire, offering
a figure of the goddess MAAT
) to Tem Y=
=>
SE
the great god of THEKU (SUCCOTH).
Behind
him stand Osiris, the god of PER-QEHRT
(a
=
era ὃ— th goth PI-HAHIROTH (Exod. xiv.
2;.
Num. xxxii. 7), Horus, Isis, and ARSINOE, the
Queen of ProLremy II, who is identified with
the goddess Isis-HATHOR.
2. Protemy II offering an Utchat ©; to
the god of the Utchat, 1.6. THoTH.
PTOLEMY
offering vases of milk to TEM, behind whom
stand 1515, and Queen ARSINO#, who is identified
with the goddess Ists-HATHoR.
[See Plate 8 in
NAVILLE,
Store-City
of Pithom,
London,
and the photograph
in AHMED
Bry
1885,
Kamat,
Catalogue, 2 vols., Cairo, 1905.]
On the Stele of Canopus, from Kom atL-Hisn,
which was set up in honour of Proremy III, the
founder of the great temple of Edfé (Plate I) we
oy
ΘΟΓΓΒΧΊΠΉ
pue
1) τποα
8
epeuuojoy
Jo 91}1,
ο]άτιιθ
10
ΠΕΡῊ
popuno;
Aq4
ΔαΠΘ]ΟΊ
J
yder80,0yd
Aq 911 9281“
oyvog
10
(‘1oxn’]
IB Avie
II
To face p. 536.]
~~
Pe
o
;
ὶ
“!
ἢ
"
ΒΒ.
᾿
:
᾿
a)
=
ἮΝ,
Ἂς
ae
i
{
é
STELAE
OF THE
have the vaulted heaven
PTOLEMIES
37
and the Winged
on the flat surface of the rounded top.
Disk
From the
Disk are suspended two uraei, the one wearing the
crown
of the South Ἧ and
of the North
Y; attached
the other the crown
to each uraeus
fly-flapper or fan ἵἷ The Disk
of life,” ae
Below
is a
is called “ giver
these is a row
of figures,
the centre one of which is the king wearing the
double crown Y, and holding a sceptre and the
symbol
of life ine
Facing
the king are the
goddesses Nut (or Isis ?), HATHOR and Bast, and
the gods Apis, AMEN, and Horus.
Behind him
stand Queen BERENICE, THOTH who holds.a
stilus
| and a palm branch,
on which
number
of the king’s life.
of the years
he inscribes
follows the goddess SESHETA ν᾿ “the
the
Next
lady of
books ”’ and counterpart of THOTH, and then we
have figures of two PTOLEMys and two Queens
ARSINO& who represent the king’s parents and
grandparents. Thus we see that the PTOLEMIES
and their Queens were deified and made to rank
as equals with the gods.
The Stele from TALL AL-MASKHUTAH, which was
set up in honour of ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ IV PHILOPATOR, is
also sculptured with a figure of the Winged Disk ;
immediately below this is the prenomen of
38
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
Pro.temy IV, and on each side of it are the signs
9.4, and the figures of Horus of the South (Epr6)
and Horus of the North ff (Mesen).
To the
left we see Protemy IV standing in a chariot, with
the horses at the galop, and driving a long Macedonian spear into the body of a prisoner, who is
kneeling with his arms tied at the elbows behind
his back, and is being thrust towards the king’s
spear by the god AtEm, or Tem.
king
stands
his
sister-wife
Behind the
ARSINOE.
Behind
ATEM stand Osiris, lord of the door of the East,
HER-SMAI-TAUI, 1.6. ‘““ Horus, unifier of the two
hands,” the god of THEKUT (SuccoTH), Horus,
lord of Ant [<<
Chief of Per-Qrurt (PI-
HAHIROTH), and the goddesses HATHOR and IsIs.
For ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ V and his ancestors, and the great
gods and goddesses, who were worshipped by
them, see the translations of the ROSETTA
STONE
in the following pages.
[DUPLICATES OF THE ROSETTA STONE]
The priests who drew up the Decree on the
ROSETTA STONE ordered that a copy of the Decree,
cut on a hard stone tablet, was to be set up in each
of the temples of the first, second, and third
classes in EGypt, and that their order was carried
out is proved by the fact that portions of some of
these duplicates have been found. The most
important of these is the STELE OF DAMANHOR, or
DUPLICATES
the
STELE
OF
ANNOBAIRAH,
39
as it is sometimes
called. This monument is 4 ft. 2 in. in height,
δύο ΘΟ
π΄ ἴ ἃ IN τὰ wwidth,. and) is
inscribed with 31 lines of hieroglyphic text.
Immediately above the inscription, and under the
Winged Disk, is sculptured a scene in which the
king, PToLEmMy V, is represented in the act of
spearing an enemy, who kneels before him and has
his arms tied together at the elbows behind him.
Behind the king stands a royal lady wearing the
disk and plumes of Isis. Facing him is a god
who has the feather of Maat
i upon his head,
and is presenting to the king a scimitar of victory.
Behind him stands a lhoness-headed goddess
(Bast ?), and behind her are figures of three of
the ProLEMIES and their Queens, and close to their
heads are the cartouches containing their names.
These probably represent -the parents, grandparents and great-grandparents of PToLEMy V.
(A photographic reproduction of the Stele is
given by AHMED
Bey
Kamal,
in his Catalogue
général des Antiquités Egyptiennes
Cairé,
2
LXIII;
Gottingen,
Vols
and
(τὺ
τοῦς
du Musée
plates.
-LX11,
by SeETuHeE in the Nachrichten
Berlin,
1916, Heft 2.)
du
and
of
There is then,
no good reason for thinking that the RosETtTa
STONE differed in respect of its general scheme of
decoration from the STELAE set up in honour of
ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ III and Protemy IV.
40
THE
VII.—THE
ROSETTA
INSCRIPTIONS
ON
STONE
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
The bilingual (not trilingual) inscription on the
ROSETTA STONE is written from right to left in the
two forms of EGYPTIAN writing andin GREEK.
It
was the fashion at one time to compare the
inscription on the ROSETTA STONE with the great
Inscription which Darius I had cut upon the rock
at BAHISTON
in PERSIA,
and to describe each of
these documents as trilingual. But it must be
remembered that the DECREE on the ROSETTA
STONE is BILINGUAL, though written in three kinds
of writing, and that the BauIsTON Inscription is
TRILINGUAL, and written in three languages (PERSIAN, SUSIAN, and BABYLONIAN) in three different
kinds of cuneiform character.
The GREEK portion
of the inscription on the ROSETTA STONE is written
in uncials ; it contains 54 lines of text, the last 26
of which are imperfect at the ends. In the transcript given on p. 124 f. the words are divided by
spaces for the convenience of the beginner. The
EGYPTIAN portion of the text is written in—
I. The
HIEROGLYPHIC
character,
that is to
say in the old picture writing which was employed in Egypt from the earliest dynasties in
making copies of funerary and religious texts,
and in nearly all state and ceremonial documents that were intended to be seen by the
public. The invention of hieroglyphic writing
was
attributed
to the
god THoTH,
who
is
CONTENTS
OF
INSCRIPTIONS
41
described as the heart and tongue of RA, the
Sun-god, and the scribe or secretary of the gods.
The texts written on the walls of the chamber
and
corridors
of the pyramids
at Sakkarah
(VIth Dynasty) are in hieroglyphs, and the
spells which they form were considered to be
more efficacious when so written.
The HIERO-
GLYPHIC text on the ROSETTA STONE consists of
14 lines, not one of which is complete; it
corresponds roughly to the last 28 lines of the
Greek version, and more
than
one-half
of this
version of the Decree is wanting.
2. The DEmotic character, that is to say the
conventional,
abbreviated,
and
modified
form
of the HIERATIC character, or cursive form of
hieroglyphic writing, which was in general use
for literary and commercial purposes during the
Ptolemaic period, and for some centuries earlier.
The DEMOTIC version contains 32 lines of text,
and the first 14 of these are imperfect at the
beginnings.
VIII.—THE
CONTENTS
THE
OF
ROSETTA
THE
INSCRIPTIONS
ON
STONE
The DECREE inscribed on the ROSETTA STONE
was promulgated at a great General Council of
Egyptian priests from Upper and Lower Egypt,
who assembled at MEMPHIS, presumably in the
great temple of PTau and APIs, to celebrate the
first commemoration of the accession of PTOLEMY V
42
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
EPIPHANES to the throne of Egypt in the year
197-196 B.c., 1.6. in the ninth year of his reign.
The DECREE summarizes the benefactions which
PTtoLemMy
V had bestowed
upon
the priesthoods,
and upon the soldiers and sailors and civilians of
Egypt, and orders an augmentation of the honours
to be paid to the king as a token of their gratitude.
The opening lines contain the date, and describe
the assembling of the priesthoods at MEMPHIS, and
then follows the list of the King’s benefactions,
which include :—
1. Gifts of corn and money to the temples.
2. Gifts to the officers and men in the King’s
Army.
3. The remission of taxes to increase the
comfort and prosperity of all classes.
4. The withdrawal of claims to arrears of
taxes.
5. The release of offenders
who
had been in
prison for a long time.
6. The restoration to the temples of sacrosanct
lands and revenues.
7, Ihe reduction of the taxes. patd. by the
priests.
8. The abolition of the obligation of the priests
to visit ALEXANDRIA annually.
g. The abolition of the press-gang for the Navy.
10. The remission of two-thirds of the tax on
the byssus due from the temples to the
king.
CONTENTS
DOIeS The
INSCRIPTIONS
43
restoration of peace and order throughout
12.
OF
Ecypt,
and
of
the
ceremonies
connected with the worship of the
gods.
The forgiveness of those who had rebelled,
and the granting to them of permission
to return to their homes, and to resume
possession of their lands and property.
13: The formation of an Army and a Navy to
defend EGypt at the King’s expense.
14. Whessiege: and secapture for themCity yot
Lycopo.is which had been fortified by
the rebels.
15. The punishment of the ringleaders of the
rebellion against ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ IV PHILOoPATOR, the father of the King. Some of
the rebels were impaled at MEMPHIS.
16. The
remission
of the contributions of corn
and money due to the King from the
temples, and of the tax on byssus.
17. The remission of the tax of one avtaba per
arura
of land, and one jar of wine per
arura of vineyard.
18. The endowment of the temples of Apis and
MNEvISs and the other sacred animals,
and payment
of all charges connected
with their burials, and the maintenance
19. The
of their cults.
maintenance of cults of the gods
throughout Upper and Lower Egypt.
44
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
Having summarized the King’s religious and
patriotic benefactions, the priests go on to
point out that in return for all these noble
deeds the gods and goddesses have given to
the king power and victory, life and health
and strength, and good things of every kind,
and
that
they
have,
moreover,
established
his
throne, and
secured
the possession
of it
by his posterity.
The priests also recognized
that it was their duty to mark their sense
of gratitude to the king for the benefits which
they and their temples had received in some
unmistakeable way, and they therefore decreed
that—
1. Additional
PTOLEMY
honours
V
should
be
paid
to
EPIPHANES
and
his
an-
cestors.
2. A statue of ProLemy V as the “‘ Avenger of
Egypt ”’ should be set up side by side
with a statue of the chief local god in
the most prominent place in every
temple in Ecypr.
3. Worship of these statues should be performed thrice daily, and every ceremony which would gratify their Kau
(1.6. Doubles) should be performed with
the same care and attention to ancient
use as was shown to the great gods of
the country.
CONTENTS
OF
INSCRIPTIONS
45
A wooden figure of the king, in a gilded
shrine, should be set up in every temple,
side by side with the statues and shrines
of the other gods.
. Both the figures of the king, and their
shrines, should be carried out with the
figure and shrines of the other gods on
the holy days when sacred processions
were made.
. Each shrine should
unusual manner,
be decorated in an
and with a series of
crowns arranged in such a way that the
shrine of ProLemy V should be the most
prominent in every group of shrines in
every temple.
. The birthday of Protemy V and the day
of his accession
be
observed
to
the throne
monthly
should
as
days
of
the
month
of
festival.
2 he
first
five’
days
of
THOTH should be observed as a festival,
during which
the people should
wear
garlands.
. The title “Priest of the god Epiphanes
Eucharistus ”’ should be added to the
other titles of the priests, and should be
10.
inscribed on the ring of each priest.
Private persons should be permitted to
associate themselves with the priests in
paying honours to ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ V.
46
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
11. The Decree should be inscribed in the old
hieroglyphic character, in Demotic, and
in Greek on a slab of hard, black basalt,
and a copy of it, inscribed on hard stone,
should be set up side by side with the
image of the king in every temple of the
first, second, and third class in EGYPT.
How far the priests gave effect to their Decree
isnot known.
If they took care that a hard stone
tablet inscribed with the Decree in Greek, Demotic,
and hieroglyphs was set up in all the temples of
the
first,
second,
and
third
orders
in
UPPER
Ecypt and LOWER EGYPT, a very considerable
number of copies would have to be made.
But it
is very doubtful if their decision was carried into
effect literally, for the only two complete copies
of the Decree inscribed on stelae known to us
are
those
of ROSETTA
and
AN-NOBAIRAH.
No
copy of the Decree has been found at THEBES or
ABYDOS, or even
at MEMPHIS,
and it seems
as if
the priests contented themselves with setting up
copies of it in the towns of the DELTA, which lay at
no great distance from ALEXANDRIA, the seat of the
Government of the PTOLEMIES.
The copy cut on
the walls of the temple at PHILAE (Plate II) was
mutilated by a successor of PTroLEmMy V, who
paid scant respect to the fame of his predecessor,
and was chiefly concerned with glorifying himself.
PLATE
To face p. 46.]
II,
γ
THE DECREE CONFERRING ADDITIONAL
HONOURS=
ON (PIOLEMY. VP PIPHANES
(B.C. 9203-131) WICH
WAS
PASSED
ΒΥ
ee
ΘΓ ΘΟ ES On . virile
ΒΟΥ:
ASSEMBLE
DASAT . MEMPHIS,
ΟΝ
“THE
BHIGHLEENTH:
DAY
sO
ΠῚ
“MONTH
MECHIK SING THE SNINTH eSYEAR OB ΤΠ
REIGN OF THE KING
-
-.--
τ-ς
᾿
ΞΞ.
᾿"
—=
~
Ξ΄
᾿"
Ἂς
ΠΣ
ΧΑ
Qi)
a9
Aa
Ds
(iAGh,
EA
rdw
ΠΝ.
Nie
ἌΤΙ
Ses
Ψ
;
ἴΒ
=
i
:
ri
Ὁ
Ai
ΜΗ,
SET
SALI
S2S,
Ota
Βα
τι
=i. RE
>=
On
ἐν ὨΤ
mie pie GSA
=
=
DAO ΦΗΜΙ diMe.
rin
“ri
ἃς
SIN
Pye ea ee AR
pha
.&s
ΝΣ
40 ee
:
an
ah
ὦ
i
=
᾿ς
_
7
."
ἂς
ἢ
as
ΝΞ
a
τὰ
CHAPTER
I.—EARLY
TEXT
PUBLICATIONS
OF THE
DECREE
IT
OF THE
ORIGINAL
ON THE
ROSETTA
GREEK
STONE
Half a century ago several distinguished Egyptologists thought that the bilingual Decree inscribed on the ROSETTA STONE was drafted by
the priests, assembled at Memphis in the year
B.C. 197-196, in Demotic, and that the Greek
text was merely a translation of it. This view
seemed reasonable enough at that time, for
few Egyptologists then possessed a competent
knowledge of Demotic.
But the studies made
by Demotologists during the last twenty years
have
proved
that
the
original
draft
Decree
was
written
in
Greek,
and
of
the
that
the
Demotic text on the Stone is a translation
made from the Greek, which it does not always
represent accurately.
The first facsimile of the texts on the Stone was
made by the French lithographers, who were sent
to Cairo from France specially for this purpose,
and they took their facsimiles back to Paris with
them. The earliest published facsimiles of the
Stone will be found in Vetusta
Monumenta, vol. iv,
D
50
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
plates VIII and IX (published by the Society of
Antiquaries of London) ; Description de l Egypte,
tome v, plates V, VI and VII; and Lepsius,
Auswahl, plates XVIII and XIX.
early editions of the Greek text
Among the
which were
published with elaborate commentaries and translations, may be mentioned those of “ Citoyen
AMEILHON ”’ (in Latin and French, Paris, Floréal,
an XI (1803), 4to, Imprimé par Baudouin) ;
DuANE,
Coins
of the Seleucidae,
London,
1803;
C. G. HEYNE (in Comment. Soc. R. Sc. Gott., tome
XV, pp. 260-80), Gottingen, 1804 ; ΝΥ. DRUMANN,
Inschrift
von
Rosetta,
Konigsberg,
1923;
LETRONNE and C. MULLER (in Dipot’s Fragmenta
Hist.
Graec.,
Recueil, Paris,
tionum
No. 4697.
tome
1842;
Graecarum,
1, Appendix);
Borcku,
tome
LETRONNE,
Corpus Inscrip-
iii,
Berlin,
1853,
Recent editions of the Greek text will
be found in J. P. Mauarry, The Empire of the
Ptolemies, p. 316 f.; M. R. Strack, Die Dynastie
der Ptolemder, Berlin, 1897, p. 240 f.; and
W. DITTENBERGER, Ortentis Graect Inscriptiones
Selectae, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1903.
The earliest ENGLISH TRANSLATION of the Greek
text was made by PLUMPTRE (Prebendary of
Gloucester), and was published in the Gentleman’s
Magazine,
1802, vol. 72, p. 1106 f.
Later trans-
lations are those of DUANE (Coins of the Seleucidae,
London, 1803, p. 190 f.) ; Porson, published by
E. D. CLARKE in Greek Marbles, p. 58;
S. Brrcu
ENGLISH
RENDERING
(in ARUNDALE
and
OF
GREEK
Bonomi’s
TEXT
Gallery
51
of An-
tiquities, p. 114 f., and in Records of the Past,
London, 1825, vol. iv, p. 71 f.); MAHAFFY (in
Empire of the Ptolemies, pp. 316-27, and The
Ptolemaic Dynasty, p. 152 f.); and E. BrEvan,
A History of Egypt under the Ptolemaic Dynasty,
London,
1827,
TRANSLATION
p. 263
published
Eclaircissements,
Paris,
f.
The
was
earliest
FRENCH
that of AMEILHON,
1803,
pp.
108-16.
The
translation made by M. Du THEIL before this
date was never published.
LETRONNE made a
French translation for the use of CHAMPOLLION
LE JEUNE, and it was published in Drpot’s
Fragmenta Hist. Graec., vol. 1, Paris, 1841.
Good
LATIN TRANSLATIONS are those of AMEILHON
(1803), C. G. HEYNE (1804), and J. BAILEY (1816).
The GERMAN TRANSLATION made by W. DRUMANN
was published in 1822-4, and was a good piece of
work.
An ITALIAN TRANSLATION by F. RICARDI
appeared at Genoa in 1833.
II.—ENGLISH
RENDERING
THE
OF
ROSETTA
[THE DATING
THE
GREEK
TEXT
ON
STONE
OF THE DECREE]
1 In the reign of the YOUNG [GoD], who hath
received
the sovereignty from his father,
the Lord of Crowns, who is exceedingly
glorious, who hath stablished EcyptT firmly,
who holdeth
D2
52
DHE,
ΟΞ
ΘΟΝῈ;
2 in reverence the gods, who hath gained the
mastery over his enemies, who hath made the
life of man
to follow its normal
course,
lord
of the Thirty-year Festivals,’ like HEPHAISTOS?
THE GREAT, a King, like HELIOs,?
3 great king of the UPPER COUNTRY! and of the
LowER Country,’ offspring of the gods PHILoPATORES,®
whom
HEPHAISTOS
hath
chosen,?
to whom HELIos hath given the victory, the
Living Image® of ZeEus,® the son of HELIOs
(Ra), PToLemy,
1 T.e. the Set Festivals.
The Set Festival, | x
[all
,or
“Festival of the Tail,’’ was celebrated by the king every
30 years, or after any great event, however frequent,
or whenever he wished to obtain a renewal of his life from
the gods.
S Wig,
Memphis.
JEUNE, aba
the
great
handicraftsman-god
of
PTau like IeMHETEP, the god of medicine, also of
Memphis, was originally a deified citizen of Memphis.
3 J.e. the Sun-god Ra,
a} αν excellence of Heliopolis.
4.1.6. all Egypt south of Memphis.
6 I.e. the Delta.
5. In Egyptian, lpi —— oe ay
7 The Kings of Egypt were selected or chosen by RA, or
AMEN, or Prau ; the candidate for the throne was introduced
into the shrine of the god, and the hand of the god stretched
itself out and rested on the god’s chosen one.
8. In Egyptian, Sekhem ankh, Y 18
® The equivalent of the Egyptian god AMEN,
ane 4.
JOU.
JALAN,
(((€S +d) Φ our] 44x03 ya0rD 91] JO UOT}EISUeI} 911 99S)
‘soroydoryyy 911 SulUMOID
(‘unesny YSIWI_ 911} Ul Jorfer 82100-Ἐ1191 URMIOY eB W017)
eo
fare +
Tha
ry
a
ΜῈ
ah
Ὁ»
SS ἡ—-
was
;
᾿ J
c
“
=?
r
(
»
ἢ
-
Aihlanise
bs
<a
eh
:
ΩΣ
A
7
ths,
i
ἢ
;
ὯΝ
er
a
=
ΟΣ
»
»“"
1
ae.
"
εν
=
eo
=
---
—
=
7
es
-
oa
δ᾽
=
3
᾿
a J ae
aia
San)
"
“ἝΞ
:
πο τὰν
PLATE
IV.
Canephoros,
or
Priestess
of
Demeter,
bearing on her head a basket for the
fruits of the earth.
(From a statue in
the British Museum.)
(See the translation of the Greek text, line 5 (p. 51).)
[To face p. 53.
ENGLISH
RENDERING
OF GREEK
TEXT
53
4 the everliving, the beloved of PTAH.
In the IXth year, when AETOos, the son of
AETOS, was priest of ALEXANDER, and of the
gods SOTERES,’ and of the gods ADELPHoI,?
and of the gods EUVERGETES,’ and of the gods
PHILOPATORES,
and
5 the God EpIPHANES* EUCHARISTOS® ; PYRRHA,
daughter of PHILINOs, being the Athlophoros®
(Plate III) of BERENIKE EUERGETES, and
AREIA, daughter of DIOGENES, the Kanephoros’
(Plate IV) of ARsINOE
PHILADELPHOS,
and
EIRENE,
6 the daughter of ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ, being priestess of
ARSINOE PHILOPATOR; the IVth day of the
month XANDIKOS,® which corresponds to the
XVIIIth
day
of the
Egyptian
MEKHEIR,
the
second
month
PERT
<=
ESV
Nl
month
of
of the season
1 In Egyptian, + + |.
1 In Egyptian, ΠῚ
3 In Egyptian, ἢ] :
4 In Egyptian, τῇ =, P-NETER-PERI, 14.€. the ‘“‘god who
cometh forth” [like the Sun-god RA Ὁ].
5 The hieroglyphic version has no equivalent for this title:
it is a translation from the Demotic words.
* J.e. bearer of the gift of victory.
7 The priestess of Demeter.
* The Macedonian month of April.
54
THE
ROSETTA
[INTRODUCTION
STONE
TO THE
DECREE]
The High-priests, and the Prophets,
those who go into the shrine to dress
and
7 the gods, and the Bearers of Feathers, and the
sacred Scribes, and all the other priests who
have gathered themselves together from the
temples throughout the country before the
king in ΜΈΜΡΗΙΒ, for the commemorative
festival of the reception of the
8 kingdom,
by
PToLEemy,
beloved
of
Pray,
EvuUCHARISTOS,’
the
the
which
everliving,
god
he_
his father, being assembled
the
EPIPHANES
received
from
in the temple
of [PTAH] in Mempuis, on this day, declared
[thus] :—
[PTOLEMY V AS BENEFACTOR OF THE TEMPLES
OF EGyPpT]
g ὃὃΘ(1)
“Inasmuch
ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ,
the
“everliving,”
the: beloved=
οἱ
ῬΤΑῊ,
“(ρα
EPpipHANES
EUCHARISTOS,
the
the
οἵ
“spring
of ‘King
as
King
ProLemMy
(IV) and
Queen
““ARSINOF, the
Gods PHILOPATORES, hath
“given
many
benefactions, both
to the
“temples, and
1o “‘ to those that dwell therein, and to all those
““who
are subject to his dominion,
being a
* An Egyptian equivalent is perhaps neb neferu, —7
‘lord of beneficent actions.”
jJΪ
ENGLISH
“God
OF
GREEK
TEXT
55
born of a god and goddess—even
“Horus,
ΤῈ
RENDERING
the
son
of Isis
and
like
Osiris,
who
“ avenged his father Ostris— ;
(2) ‘and towards the gods
“ being full of benevolent piety, hath dedicated
“to the temples revenues in money and in
“ grain ;
(3) “‘and hath incurred great expenses in
‘order that he might bring Ecypr into a
“state of prosperity, and might establish the
metLempies,
(4) “and hath given away freely of all the
““moneys which were his own ;
(5) “᾿ and of the taxes and dues which come
“to him from EGypt, some he hath finally
¢
12
“remitted,
and
others
he hath
reduced,
so
“that the people (1.6. the native EGYPTIANS)
“and all the others (1.6. foreigners domiciled
“in the country)
13 “might be prosperous during his reign ;
(6) “and hath remitted to the natives of
“ EGypt and to all the other people [domiciled]
“in his kingdom, the debts which were due to
14
“the royal treasury and which were indeed
“very many in number ;
(7) ““and hath set free from the charges
“against them those who were in the prisons,
“and who had been there for a long time
“because
sacases|:
of
the
[non-settlement
of
their
THE
56
ROSETTA
STONE
[PTOLEMY V CONFIRMS THE REVENUES OF
THE
TEMPLES,
AND
RESTORES
THEIR
FORMER REVENUES]
(8) ‘‘and hath ordered that the revenues of
‘the temples, and the grants which are made
“to them annually, both in respect of grain
15 “and money, and also the proper portion
“(which is assigned to the gods from the vine‘yards, and
from
the gardens, and the other
‘possessions of the gods, should, as they were
‘in the reign of his father,
τό ‘“‘remain the same ;
(9) ‘‘and in respect of the priests also, he
“hath also commanded
‘“‘no more
that they should pay
as their fee for consecration,
than
‘“‘what they had been [formerly] assessed in
“ the time of his father and up to the first year
“ [οἱ his reign].
[ABOLITION OF THE PRIEST'S ANNUAL JOURNEY
TO ALEXANDRIA AND REDUCTION OF THE
TARIFF]
(το) ‘“‘ And further he hath released
“members
of the priestly class [from the
17
“ obligation] to sail down [the NILE] annually
“to ALEXANDRIA.
(11) “‘ And he hath likewise commanded that
‘““men shall no longer be seized by force [for
“ service] in the Navy ;
ENGLISH
RENDERING
OF
GREEK
TEXT
57
(12) “and of the tax upon cloth of byssus
“which is paid to the royal treasury by the
“temples
18 “he hath remitted two-thirds.
[THE RESTORATION OF PEACE IN THE COUNTRY
AND THE GRANTING OF AN AMNESTY]
(13) “‘and whatsoever
things had _ been
“neglected in times past he hath restored,
“and set in the order in which they should
“ΡῈ:
(14) ἀπὸ he hath taken care that the
“ceremonial obligations to the Gods should
~ be
19 “rightly performed ;
(15) “᾿ and moreover, he hath administered
“justice unto every man, even like HERMES,’
“the Great Great ;
(16) ‘‘ and he hath further ordered that those
“of
the
soldiers
“ others
20 “‘who had
held
“troubled
times,
who
returned,
rebellious
should,
and
of the
opinions
in the
having
come
back,
“be allowed to keep possession of their own
“* property.
1 The equivalent of the Egyptian god ΤΉΟΤΗ, aN a who
in hieroglyphic
“thrice great,”
hd
ΕΣ
texts
«=>.
=<
is called
‘twice
great,” ~~)?
ὅν,
and
58
DHE
[PTOLEMY
SROSEMUARSIONE
V PROTECTS EGYPT FROM
FROM WITHOUT]
ENEMIES
(17) ‘““ And he hath made provision that
“forces of cavalry and infantry, and ships also,
“should be despatched against those who were
“ about to invade
21 ‘“‘EGypt, both by sea and by land, [thus]
“incurring great expenditure in money and
“ grain, so that the temples and all who were
“in the country might be in a state of security.
[PTOLEMY
V PUNISHES THE
LyYcopo tis]
(18) “‘ And having gone
REBELS
OF
22 “‘ to LYcopo;is,! which is in the Busirite nome,
““ which had been occupied and fortified against
“a siege with an arsenal well stocked with
‘““ weapons of war and supplies of every kind—
“now of long standing
23 “‘ was the disaffection of the impious men who
“were gathered together in it, and who had
“done much injury to the temples, and to all
“those who dwelt in EcGypt—and having
“encamped
24 “᾿ against them, he surrounded it with mounds,
“and, trenches, and marvellous engines; and
““when the NILE made a great rise (7.6.
“inundation) in the VIIIth year, and being
“about, as usual, to flood out
1 The KOYNOY (CUNO) which STRABOo and PLINY join to
Busiris ; it lay between Thmuis and Tawa.
ENGLISH
RENDERING
OF
GREEK
TEXT
59
25 “the plains, he (1.6. the King) held [the river]
“in check, having dammed up in many places
“the mouths of the canals, and in carrying
“out this work spent no small sum of money ;
“and having stationed cavalry and infantry to
“ guard [the dams]
took by storm the city in a very short
“time, and destroyed all the impious men who
“were therein, even as HERMES (THOTH), and
26 “he
“ Horus, the son of Isis and OsiRIs, in those
27
“very same places, reduced
‘“‘ those who had rebelled.
to
subjection
[PUNISHMENT OF THE LEADERS OF THE REVOLT
AGAINST PToLEMY IV PHILOPATOR]
““And the men who had led astray the
‘ rebels in the time of his father, and had stirred
“up revolt in the country, and had committed
“sacrilege in the temples, having come into
“ΜΈΜΡΗΙΒ for the purpose of avenging
28 “his father and his own sovereignty, he
“punished according to their deserts at the
“time when he came there to perform the
“duly appointed ceremonies for his reception
“of the crown.
[REMISSION OF ARREARS OF TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE TEMPLES]
(19) “‘ And moreover he hath remitted to
“the
temples that which was due to the royal
29
“treasury up to the VIIIth year of his reign,
THE
60
“which
was
ROSETTA
no
STONE
small amount
of corn
and
“ ΠΊΟΙ ΘΝ;
(20) ‘“‘and moreover, he hath remitted the
‘dues upon byssus cloth which had not been
“paid into the royal treasury,
30 ‘and also the charges made for the examina“tion (Ὁ) of those which had been sent in
“during that same period ;
(21) ‘‘and he hath also freed the temples
“from [the tax of] one arvtaba for each arura of
“land [held by the temples], and also [the tax
of] one jar of wine
31 “for each arura of vineyards.
[PTOLEMY V PROVIDES
FOR THE SACRED
ANIMALS, AND THE WORSHIP OF THE GODS;
HIS REWARD FOR THE SAME]
(22) ‘“‘ And to [the Bull] Apis, and to [the
“ Bull] Mnevis he hath given many gifts, and
“to
32
the other sacred
animals
in EGypt,
far
““ more indeed than the kings who were before
“him, and he was careful in respect of what
“ belonged to them in
“every matter whatsoever, and for their
“burials he gave all that was needed with
“splendid generosity, and that which was
“necessary for private shrines, and for sacri“fices, and for commemorative feasts, and for
“the ordinances as by law (or, custom) pre“ scribed ;
ENGLISH
33
RENDERING
OF
GREEK
TEXT
61
(23) “‘and the honourable estate of the
“temples and of Ecyprt he hath maintained in
“a fitting manner,
“custom ;
according
to traditional
(24) “‘ and he hath decorated the Temple of
“ APIs with fine work, expending upon it gold,
“and silver, and
34 ““ precious stones in no small quantities ;
(25) “‘and
he hath
founded
(refounded Ὁ)
“temples, and shrines, and altars, and hath
“restored those which needed repairs, having
“the zeal of a beneficent god in matters which
eerelateato
35 “ divine service, and having discovered which
“of the temples were most held in honour, he
“hath restored the same during his reign, as
““ was meet.
“In return for all these things the gods have
“given him health, and victory, and power,
“and all other good things, and his
36 “sovereignty shall remain with him, and with
“his children for all time.
[THE PRIESTS DECREE ADDITIONAL HONOURS
FOR PTOLEMY V AND HIS ANCESTORS]
“WITH
THE
FORTUNE
(OR
LUCK)
WHICH
FAVOURETH.
“Τί hath seemed good to the priests of all
“the temples in the land, that the honours
“which have been bestowed upon
THE
62
ROSETTASSTONE
37. ‘King
Proremy, the everliving, the beloved
“of Pran, the God EpIPHANES EUCHARISTOS,
‘‘and likewise those of his parents, the Gods
‘‘ PHILOPATORES, and those of his ancestors,
“the Gods EUERGETES, and
38 ‘the Gods ADELPHOI, and the Gods SOTERES,
“should be greatly added to [viz.] :—
[STATUES OF PTOLEMY V AND THE LOCAL CHIEF
GODS ARE TO BE SET UP IN ALL THE TEMPLES]
(x) ‘‘ To set up to the God ProLemy,
the
“ everliving, the God EPIPHANES EUCHARISTOS,
“an image in the most prominent part of every
“ temple,
39 ‘““ which shall be called (inscribed ?) ‘ PTOLEMY,
‘‘ THE AVENGER OF Ecypt.’ And close by this
“image shall stand [an image of] the chief god
“of the temple presenting to him the weapon
“of victory, which shall be constructed after
“ the Egyptian
40 ‘fashion.’
And the priests shall do homage
“ to the[se] image(s] three times each day. And
“they shall array them in sacred apparel, and
“they shall perform [for them] ceremonies
“similar to those which they are wont to
“perform for the other gods during the
“festivals which are celebrated throughout
“the country.
Δ In Egypt the gods gave to the kings a sword or scimitar
of victory shaped thus, <>.
ENGLISH
RENDERING
OF
GREEK
ΤΕΧΤ
68
[A WOODEN STATUE OF PTOLEMY V IN A GOLDEN
SHRINE IS TO BE SET UP IN THE TEMPLES]
41
(2) ““And
they
shall
set
up
for
King
“ PTOLEMY, the God EpIPHANES EUCHARISTOS,
“the
offspring
“Queen
of King
ARSINOE,
Protemy
(IV) and
the Gods PHILOPATORES,
a
“statue and a golden shrine in each of the
“ temples,
42 “and they shall place it in the inner chambers
“fof the sanctuary] with the other shrines.
“And during the great commemorative fes“ tivals, wherein the shrines go forth [in pro“cessions], the shrine of the God EPIPHANES
“ EUCHARISTOS shall
43 “go forth with them. And in order that the
“ shrine may be readily distinguished now and
“in after time, it shall be surmounted by the
‘ten golden crowns of the King, and an asp
“ (2,6. cobra) shall be affixed thereto, even as
“ there is on all the other
44 “crowns with asps which are on other shrines,
“but in the centre of them shall be [placed]
“the crown which is called PSCHENT, which he
“ (72.6. the King) put on when he went into the
“Temple [of ῬΤΑΗ] in MEMPHIS to perform
“ therein
45 “the prescribed ceremonies connected with
“ This] assumption of sovereignty.
And there
“shall be placed on the [faces of the] square
THE
64
ROSETTA-
STONE
“ἢ [cornice ἢ] which is round about the crowns,
“side by
“ crown
side
with
the
above-mentioned
46 ‘‘ (PSKHENT] ten golden phylacteries (7.6. scrolls
‘or tablets ?) which shall bear the inscription
“Ὁ This is [the shrine] of the KING who maketh
“ manifest the UPPER COUNTRY and the LOWER
“ COUNTRYS’
[SPECIAL FESTIVALS ARE TO BE ESTABLISHED
IN HONOUR OF PTOLEMY V]
“And inasmuch as the XXXth
day of the
“month of Mesore,* whereon the birthday of
“the KiInG is celebrated, and likewise the
“ XVIIth day of the
47 ““month of PAOPHI, whereon he received the
“sovereignty from his father, have been
“recognized as name-days in the temples, for
“they were the sources of many benefits for
“all people, on these days a festival and a
“panegyry shall be celebrated in the temples
=O!
48 ““EGyYptT each month, and sacrifices and liba“tions, and all the other rites and ceremonies
“which are prescribed shall be duly performed
49 “as on other festivals.
{Here a few words are
“ wanting. |
1 The Stele of Damanhur
season Shemu.”’
has <Sz, “fourth month of the
a
ENGLISH
RENDERING
OF
GREEK
TEXT
65
(3) “‘ And a festival and a panegyry shall
“be celebrated yearly for King PToLemy, the
“everliving, the beloved of PTau, the God
““ EPIPHANES EUCHARISTOS, in all the temples
“ throughout the
50
“country, from the first day of the month of
“ THOTH, for five days. And they shall wear
“crowns (7.6. garlands), and shall offer up
“sacrifices and make libations, and do every-
“thing which it is customary to do.
[THE PRIESTS
OF PTOLEMY
A
51
NEW
V SHALL
ASSUME
TITLE]
(4) ‘“‘ And the priests of the other gods shall
“adopt
the name
of ‘Priests
of the God
““« HPIPHANES EUCHARISTOS,’ in addition to the
“names of the other gods to whom they
δ minister.
(5) ‘“‘ And in all the decrees and [ordinances]
“ promulgated by them shall be mentioned
52 “his order of priests.
[PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS MAY PARTICIPATE IN
PAYING THESE HONOURS TO PTOLEMY VJ]
(6) ‘‘ And members of the laity shall be per“mitted to celebrate the festival, and to set up
“and maintain in their houses shrines similar
“to the aforesaid shrine, and to perform the
‘“‘ceremonies which are prescribed for the
“ festivals, both monthly
E
66
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
53 ‘‘and annually, in order that it may be well
“known that in Ecypt men magnify and
“honour
the
God
EPIPHANES
EUCHARISTOS,
“the King, as they are bound to do by law.
[THE PROMULGATION
OF THE
DECREE]
(7) ‘‘ And this Decree shall be inscribed upon
“ stelae
54 “᾿ of hard stone, in holy, and in native, and in
“ Greek letters, and [a stela] shall be set up
“in each of the temples of the first, second, and
“third [class] near the image of the everliving
“ KING.”
‘
III.—GREEK
PRIESTS
TEXT
OF
ON
THE
THE
DECREE
ROSETTA
OF
THE
STONE
τ: BAZIAEYONTOZ TOY NEOY KAI NAPAAABONTOZL
THN
BAZIAEIAN
NAPA
TOY
ΠΑΤΡῸΣ KYPIOY BAZIAEIQN MEFAAOAOΣΟΥ, TOY THN AIFYNTON KATAZTHZAMENOY KAI TA ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ
2 ΘΕΟΥΣ EYZEBOYE, ANTINAAQN
YNEPTEPOY, TOY
TON
BION ΤΩΝ
ANOPONQN
ENANOPODZANTOZ, KYPIOY TPIAKONTAETHPIAQN,
KAOANEP
O
ΗΦΑΙΣΤΟΣ
O
ΜΕΓΑΣ, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ KAOANEP O HAIOX,
ΔΜΕΓΑΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕῪΣ ΤΩΝ TE ANQ KAI TAN
KAT
XOPQN, EKFONOY
ΘΕΩ͂Ν ΦΙΛΟΠΑTOPQN, ON
O ΗΦΑΙΣΤΟΣ
EAOKIMAZEN
WI
O
HAIOZ
EAQKEN
ΤῊΝ
NIKHN,
EIKONOZ ΖΩΣΗΣ TOY ΔΙΟΣ, YIOY TOY
HAIOY, NTOAEMAIOY
WHE
EGREEK
TERT
67
4 ALQNOBIOY, HTANHMENOY YNO TOY ¢0A,
ETOYE ENATOY ΕΦ IEPEQE AETOY TOY
AETOY AAEZANAPOY KAI ΘΕΩΝ ZQTHPON
ΚΑΙ ΘΕΩΝ ΑΔΕΛΦΩΝ KAI OEQN EYEPFETON
ΚΑΙ ΘΕΩΝ ΦΙΛΟΠΑΤΟΡΩΝ KAI
5 ΘΕΩΝ ENIMANOYE EYXAPIZTOY, ΑΘΛΟΦΟPOY BEPENIKHE EYEPrFETIAOZ ΠΎΡΡΑΣ
THE 1AINOY, KANH@OPOY APZINOHE
ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΟῪ APEIAZ THE AIOFENOYE,
IEPEIAZ APZINOHE ΦΙΛΟΠΑΤΟΡΟΣ EIPHNH
6 THE MTOAEMAIOY, ΜΗΝΟΣ ΞΑΝΔΙΚΟΥ
TETPAAI, AIFYNTIQN AE MEXEIP OKTOKAIAEKATHI, ΨΗΦΙΣΜΑ: ΟἹ APXIEPEIZ ΚΑΙ
ΠΡΟΦΗΤΑΙ
ΚΑΙ ΟἹ EIZ ΤΟ AAYTON
ΕΙ[Σ] MOPEYOMENO! ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΝ ΣΤΟΛΙΣΜΟΝ ΤΩΝ
7 ΘΕΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΠΤΕΡΟΦΟΡΑΙ ΚΑΙ ΙΕΡΟΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΕΙΣ ΚΑΙ Of ΑΛΛΟΙ IEPEIZ ΠΑΝΤΕΣ ΟἹ
ANANTHEANTEZ
EK ΤΩΝ KATA ΤῊΝ
XQPAN ΙΕΡῺΝ ΕΙΣ MEMOIN ΤΩΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙ
ΠΡῸΣ
ΤῊΝ
ΠΑΝΗΓΎΡΙΝ
ΤῊΣ
MAPAΛΗΨΕΩΣ THE
8 ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΣ ΤΗΣ ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ AIQNOBIOY,
ἩΓΑΠΗΜΕΝΟῪ
ὙΠῸ TOY ΦΘΑ, ΘΕΟΥ
ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ, EYXAPIZTOY, HN ΠΑΡΕΛΑΒΕΝ
NAPA TOY ΠΑΤΡΟΣ AYTOY, ΣΥΝΑΧΘΕΝΤῈΣ
EN ΤΩΙ EN MEME[I] [1] EPQI THI HMEPAI
TAYTHI EINAN:
9 ENEIAH ΒΑΣΙΛΕῪΣ ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΣ AIONΒΙΟΣ, ΗΓΑΠΉΜΕΝΟΣ ΥΠΟ TOY ΦΘΑ, ΘΕΟΣ
ΕΠΙΦΑΝΗΣ ΕΥΧΑΡΙΣΤΟΣ, Ο ΕΓ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ
ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΗΣ ΑΡΣΙΝΟΗΣ,
ΘΕΩΝ ΦΙΛΟΠΑΤΟΡΩΝ, KATA ΠΟΛΛΑ EYEPΓΕΈΤΗΚΕΝ TA © IEPA ΚΑΙ
E2
68
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
ΤΟΥΣ EN AYTOIZ ONTAZ KAI ΤΟΥΣ YNO
THN EAYTOY BAZIAEIAN TAZZOMENOYS
ANANTAZ, YNAPXQN ΘΕΟΣ EK OEOY KAI
OEAL KAOANEP QPOLT O ΤΗΣ ΙΣΙΟΣ KAI
OZXIPIOZ YIOZ, O ENAMYNAZ ΤΩΙ NATPI
AYTOY OZIPE!I, TA ΠΡΟΣ ΘΕΟΥΣ
ΤΙ EYEPFETIKQ2 AIAKEIMENOZ ANATEOEIKEN
ΕΙΣ TA IEPA APFYPIKAZ TE KAI ZITI[KJAZ
NPOZOAOYZ,
ΚΑΙ
AANANAZT
ΠΟΛΛΑΣ
YNOMEMENHKEN
ENEKA TOY THN ΑΙΓΥNTON ΕΙΣ EYAIAN AFATEIN KAI TA IEPA
KATAZTHZAZOAI
TE EAYTOY AYNAMEZIN
ΠΕΦΙΛΑΝ12 TAIZ
OPQONHKE NAZAIZ
ΚΑΙ ANO ΤΩΝ YNAPXOYZQN
EN AIFYNTQI
NPOZOAQN
KAI
POPOAOMIQN
ΤΙΝΑΣ
MEN
ΕΙΣ
ΤΕΛΟΣ
A®HKEN,
AAAAZ
ΔΕ ΚΕΚΟΥΦΙΚΕΝ, ΟΠΩΣ
O ΤΕ ΛΑΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΟἹ ΑΛΛΟΙ ΠΑΝΤΕΣ ΕΝ
13 ΕΥΘΗΝΙΑΙ ὩΣΙΝ EN! ΤΗΣ EAYTOY ΒΑΣΙ.ΛΕΙΑΣ,
TA
ΤῈ
ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΑ
ΟΦΕΙΛΗΜΑΤΑ,
A ΠΡΟΣΏΦΕΙΛΟΝ ΟἹ ΕΝ ΑΙΓΥΠΤΩΙ
ΚΑΙ Ol
EN THI ΛΟΙΠΗΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΙ AYTOY, ONTA
NOAAA TWI ΠΛΗΘΕΙ, A®HKEN, ΚΑΙ ΤΟΥΣ
EN TAIZ ®YAAKAIZ
ΑΠΗΓΜΕΝΟΥΣ KAI ΤΟΥΣ EN AITIAIZ ONTAZ EK NOAAOY XPONOY ANEAEYZE ΤΩΝ
ENKEKALH]JMENQN:
ΠΡΟΣΕΤΑΞΕ
AE KAI
TAL
ΠΡΟΣΟΔΟῪΣ
ΤΩΝ
IEPQN
KAI TAZ
AIAOMENA®Z
ΕΙΣ AYTA KAT ENIAYTON
ΣΥΝΤΑΞΕΙΣ ΣΙΤΙ-15 ΚΑΣ ΤΕ ΚΑΙ ΑΡΓΥΡΙΚΑΣ, ΟΜΟΙΩΣ ΔΕ ΚΑΙ
ΤΑΣ
ΚΑΘΗΚΟΥΣΑΣ
ΑΠΟΜΟΙΡΑΣ
ΤΟΙΣ
ΘΕΟΙΣ ΑΠΟ ΤΕ ΤΗΣ ΑΜΠΕΛΙΤΙΔΟΣ
ΓΗΣ
ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ NAPAAEIZQN
ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΑΛΛΩΝ
Io
14
THE
GREEK
TEXT
69
ΤΩΝ ὙΠΑΡΞΑΝΤΩΝ ΤΟΙ͂Σ ΘΕΟΙΣ ΕΠΙῚ TOY
ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΑΥ̓ΤΟΥ
16 MENEIN EN! XQPAZ: ΠΡΟΣΕΤΆΑΞΕΝ AE ΚΑΙ
NEP! ΤΩΝ IEPEQN ΟΠΩΣ ΜΗΘῈΝ NAEION
AIAQZIN
ΕΙΣ TO TEAEZTIKON OY ETAZZONTO
ENT TOY ΠΡΩΤΟῪ
ETOYS
EN
TOY ΠΑΤΡῸΣ AYTOY: ANEAYZEN AE KAI
ΤΟΥΣ EK ΤΩΝ
17 ΙΈΕΡΩΝ EONQN TOY
KAT ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΝ
ΕΙΣ
AAEZANAPEIAN KATANAOY: NPOZETA=SEN
AE KAI THN ZYAAHYIN ΤΩΝ ΕΙΣ THN NAYTEIAN MH ΠΟΙΕΙΣΘΑΙ, ΤΩΝ Τ ΕΙΣ TO BAZIAIKON
ZYNTEAOYMENQN
ΕΝ
ΤΟΙΣ
IEPOIZ BYZZINQN
18 OBONIQN
ANEAYZEN TA AYO MEPH, TA
TE EFAEAEIMMENA NANTA EN ΤΟΙΣ NPOΤΕΡΟΝ
XPONOIZ
AMOKATEZTHZEN
ΕἸΣ
THN
KA@HKOYZAN
TAEIN,
®PONTIZON
ΟΠΩΣ TA EIOIZMENA ZYNTEAHTAI TOI(2)
ΘΕΟΙΣ KATA TO
Ig NPOZHKON: ΟΜΟΙΩΣ AE KAI TO AIKAION
NAZIN
ANENEIMEN,
KAOANEP
ΕΡΜΗΣ O
ΜΕΓΑΣ KAI META: MP(O) ΣΕΤΑΞΕΝ
AE KAI
TOYZ
KATANMOPEYOMENOYE
EK TE ΤΩΝ
MAXIMQN KAI ΤΩΝ AAAQN ΤΩΝ AAAOTPIA
20 PPONHZANTON EN ΤΟΙΣ KATA THN TAPAXHN ΚΑΙΡΟΙ͂Σ KATEAGONTAZ MENEIN ΕΠΙ
ΤΩΝ
IAIQN
KTHZIEQN:
MPOENOHOEH
AE
ΚΑΙ ΟΠΩΣ
ΕΞΑΠΟΣΤΑΛΩΣΙΝ
AYNAMEIZ
ΙΠΠΙΚΑΙ ΤΕ ΚΑΙ ΠΕΖΙΚΑΙ ΚΑΙ ΝΗΕΣ
EN
ΤΟΥΣ ΕΠΕΛΘΟΝΤᾺΣ
21 ΠῚ THN
ΑΙΓΥΠΤΟΝ
KATA TE THN ΘΑΛΑΣΣΑΝ
ΚΑΙ THN ΗΠΕΙΡΟΝ, ΥΠΟΜΕΙΝΑΣ
ΔΑΠΑΝΑΣ
ΑΡΓΥΡΙΚΑΣ
ΤΕ
ΚΑΙ
ΣΙΤΙΚΑΣ
70
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
MEFAAAZ,
ΟΠΩΣ TA O IEPA KAI ΟἹ EN
AYTHI
ΠΑΝΤΙΕΙ͂Σ
EN
AZOAAEIAL
QIN:
NAPAFINOME—
22 NOX AE KAI ΕΙΣ AYKQN
NOAIN THN EN
ΤΩΙ BOYIIPITHI,
H HN KATEIAHMMENH
ΚΑΙ
QXYPQMENH
ΠΡῸΣ
NMOAIOPKIAN
ONAQN
TE
ΠΑΡΑΘΕΣΕΙ
AAYVIAEZTEPAI
KA! THI AAAHI XOPH(FIDAL ΠΑΣΗΙ, QF AN
EK NOAAOY
23 X(P)ONOY ZYNEZTHKYIAZL ΤΗΣ AAAOTPIOTHTOZ ΤΟΙΣ ENIZYNAXOEIZIN ΕΙΣ AYTHN
AZEBEZIN, Ol HZAN ΕΙΣ TE TA IEPA KAI
ΤΟΥΣ EN AITYNTQI KATOIKOYNTAZ NOAAA KAKA ZYNTETEAEZMENOI, ΚΑΙ AN—
24 ΤΙΚΑΘΙΣΑΣ XQMAZIN TE ΚΑΙ TA®POIZ KAI
TEIXEZIN AYTHN
ΑΞΙΟΛΟΓΟΙΣ
NEPIEAABEN, TOY
TE
NEIAOY
THN
ANABAZIN
MEFAAHN NOIHZAMENOY EN TW! ΟΓΔΟΩΙ
ETE! ΚΑΙ EIOIZMENOY KATAKAYZEIN TA
25 NEAIA,
KATEZXEN
EK NOAAQN
TONQN
ΟΧΥΡΩΣΑΣ TA ZTTOMATA ΤΩΝ NOTAMQON,
ΧΟΡΗΓΗΣΑΣ
ΕΙΣ AYTA XPHMATQN
ΠΛΗΘΟΣ
OYK
ΟΛΙΓΟΝ
ΚΑΙ
ΚΑΤΑΣΤΗΣΑΣ
ΙΠΠΕΙΣ
TE
ΚΑΙ
ΠΕΖΟῪΣ
ΠΡῸΣ
THI
ΦΥΛΑΚΗΙ
26 ΑὙΤΩ͂Ν,
ΕΝ
ΟΛΙΓΩΙ
ΧΡΟΝΩΙ
ΤῊΝ
ΤΕ
NOAIN ΚΑΤΑ ΚΡΑΤΟΣ EIAEN ΚΑΙ ΤΟΥΣ ΕΝ
AYTHI ΑΣΕΒΕΙΣ ΠΑΝΤᾺΑΣ ΔΙΕΦΘΕΙΡΕΝ, ΚΑOANEP [ἙΡΜΊΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΡΟΣ
O ΤΗΣ ΙΣΙΟΣ
KA! ΟΣΙΡΙΟΣ ΥἹΟΣ EXEIPQZANTO ΤΟΥΣ ΕΝ
ΤΟΙ͂Σ ΑΥ̓ΤΟΙΣ
27 ΤΟΠΟΙ͂Σ ΑΠΟΣΤΑΝΤΑΣ ΠΡΟΤΕΡΟΝ, ΤΟΥΣ
(ΔΕ)ΑΦΗΓΗΣΑΜΕΝΟΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΠΟΣΤΑΝΤΩΝ
ΕΠΙ ΤΟΥ EAYTOY ΠΑΤΡΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΤῊΝ XQPAN
THE
GREEK
TEXT
71
ΕἰΝΟΧΛΗΣΊΑΝΤΑΣ KAI TA IEPA ΑΔΙΚΗΣANTAZ MAPAFENOMENOZ ΕΙΣ MEMOIN,
ENAMYNQN
ΚΑΙ THI EAYTOY BAZIAEIAI,
28 ΤΩΙ ΠΑΤΡῚ
MANTAZ EKOAAZEN ΚΑΘΗΚΟΝΤΩΣ KAO
ON KAIPON ΠΑΡΕΓΕΝΗΘΗ ΠΡΟΣ TO ZYNTEAEZOH[NAI AYTQI TA] NPOXHKONTA
ΝΌΜΙΜΑ THI MAPAAHYE! THE ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΣ.
ΑΦΗΚΕΝ AE KAI TA E[N]
29 ΤΟΙΣ
IEPOIZ
OGEIAOMENA
ΕΙΣ
TO
ΒΑΣΙ-
AIKON EQE TOY OFAOOY ΕΤΟΥΣ, ONTA
ΕΙΣ ΣΙΤΟΥ TE KAI APFYPIOY ΠΛΗΘΟΣ OYK
OAIFON: ὩΣΑΥΓΤΩΣ AE] ΚΑΙ ΤΑΣ TIMAE
ΤΩΝ MH ΣΥΝΤΕΤΕΛΕΣΜΕΝΩΝ
EIX TO
BAZIAIKON BYZZINQN ΟΘΙ[ΟΝΙΊ-ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ZYNTETEAEZMENQN TA
30 ὩΝ
ΠΡΟΣ TON ΔΕΙΓΜΑΤΙΣΜΟΝ ΔΙΑΦΟΡΑ ΕΩΣ
ΤΩΝ ΑὙΤΩΝ XPONQN: ΑΠΕΛΥΣΕΝ ΑΕ TA
ΙΕΡΑ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ Αἰ ΠΟΤΕΤΑΓΊΜΕΝΗΣ ΑΡΤΑΒΗΣ T(H)! ΑΡΟΥΡΑΙ THE ΙΕΡΑΣ ΓΗΣ, ΚΑΙ
THE ΑΜΠΕΛΙΤΙΔΟΣ ΟΜΟΙΩ(Σ)
Sik ΤΟ ΚΕΡΑΜΙΟΝ THI ΑΡΟΥΡΑΙ, TQ! TE ANE!
ΚΑΙ ΤΩΙ MNEYE! ΠΟΛΛᾺ EAQPHEATO KAI
ΤΟΙ͂Σ AAAOIX ΙΕΡΟΙΣ ZQIOIZ ΤΟΙ͂Σ EN
ΑἸΓΎΠΤΩΙ, ΠΟΛῪ XPEIZZON ΤΩΝ MPO
AYTOY BAZIAEIQN ΦΡΟΝΤΙΖΩΝ ὙΠῈΡ ΤΩΝ
ΑΝΗΚΟΝΙΤΩΝ ΕΙΣ]
32 AYTA AIA ΠΑΝΤΟΣ, ΤΑ ΤΕΙΣ ΤΑΣ ΤΑΦΑΣ
AYTQN KA@QHKONTA ΔΙΔΟῪΣ ΔΑΨΙΛΩΣ
ΚΑΙ ΕΝΔΟΞΩΣ ΚΑΙ TA ΤΕΛΙΣΚΟΜΕΝΑ ΕἰσΣ
TA ΙΔΙΑ IEPA META ΘΥΣΙΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΝΗΓῪ
ΡΕΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ AAAQN ΤΩΝ NOMI[ZOMEΝΩΝ,!
THE
72
33 TATE
TIMIA
ROSETTA
ΤΩΝ
STONE
IEPQN
KAI THE
AITYN-
TOY AIATETHPHKEN EMI XQPAZ AKOAOYΘΩΣ ΤΟΙ͂Σ NOMOIZ, ΚΑΙ TO AMIEION
ΕΡΓΟΙΣ
MOAYTEAEZIN
ΚΑΤΕΣΚΕΎΑΣΕΝ
ΧΟΡΗΓΗΣΑΣ ΕΙΣ ΑΥ̓ΤΟ ΧΡΥΣΙΟ(Υ) ΤΕ ΚΙΑΙ
ΑΡΓΥΡΙ1--
34 OY ΚΑΙ ΛΙΘΩΝ
NOAYTEAQN
ΠΛΗΘΟΣ
OYK
OAIFON, ΚΑΙ IEPA ΚΑΙ NAOYE KAI BQMOYE
IAPYZATO TA TE MPOZAEOMENA ΕΠΙΣKEYHE MPOXAINPONZATO EXQN OEOY
EYEPrETIKOY EN ΤΟΙ͂Σ ANHKOY[ZIN ΕΙΣ
ΤΟΊ
35 ΘΕΙΟΝ AIANOIAN: ΠΡΟΣΠΥΝΘΑΝΟΜΕΝΟΣ
TE TA ΤΩΝ I(E)PQN ΤΙΜΙΩΤΑΤΑ ANANEOYTO
EN! THE
EAYTOY
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΣ ΩΣ
KAOHKAI>
ANO
QN
ΔΕΔΏΚΑΣΙΝ
AYTQI
Ol GEO!
YIFIEIAN,
NIKHN,
KPATOZ
KAI
TAAA AFAOLA NANTA, ]
36 THE
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΣ
AIAMENOYZHE
AYTOI
ΚΑΙ ΤΟΙ͂Σ
XPONON:
TEKNOIZ
ΕΙΣ
TON
ANANTA
ΑΓΑΘΗΙ TYXHI,
EAOZEN ΤΟΙΣ ΙΕΡΕΥΣΙ ΤΩΝ KATA THN
XQPAN IEPQN MANTON, TA YNAPXONTA
T[IMIA MANTA]
37
ΤΩΙ
AIQNOBIQ!
BAXIAEL
ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΩ͂Ι,
ΗἩΓΑΠΗΜΕΝΩΙ YNO TOY OA, ΘΕΩΙ ENIANEI EYXAPIZTQI, OMOINE AE KAI TA ΤΩΝ
TONEQN AYTOY ΘΕΩΝ ΦΙΛ[ΟἸΠΑΤΟΡΩΝ
KAI TA TQN NPOFONQN ΘΕΩ͂Ν EYEPF[ETQN
ΚΑΙ TA]
38 TON BEQN ΑΔΕΛΦΩΝ KAI TA ΤΩΝ ΘΕΩ͂Ν
ΣΩΤΗΡΩΝ ENAYEEIN ΜΕΓΑΛΩΣ: ΣΤΗΣΑΙ AE
TOY AINNOBIOY ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ NTO(AE)MAIOY
THE
GREEKS
TEXT
73
©EOY ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ EYXAPIZTOY EIKONA
EN EKAZTQI ΙΕΡΩΙ EN ΤΩΙ ENIMA[NEXTATON TONAL]
39 H MPOZONOMAZOHEETAI
NTOAEMAIOY
TOY ENAMYNANTOE THI AIFYNTA!, HI
ΠΑΡΕΣΤΉΞΕΤΑΙ
O KYPINTATOZ ΘΕΟΣ
TOY IEPOY, AIAOYE AYTQI ONAON NIKHTIKON, A EZTAI KATEZKEYAZMEN[A TON
TON AITYNTION]
40 TPONON, KAI ΤΟΥΣ ΙΕΡΕΙΣ OEPANEYEIN
TAZ EIKONAE ΤΡΙΣ THE HMEPAZ KAI
ΠΑΡΑΤΙΘΕΝΑΙ AYTAIZ ΙΕΡΟΝ KOZMON
ΚΑΙ TAAAA TA NOMIZOMENA ΣΥΝΤΕΛΕΙ͂Ν
ΚΑΘΑ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΙΣ AAAOIZ ΘΕΟΙΣ EN [TAIZ
KATA ΤῊΝ XQPAN ΠΑ-]
41 ΝΉΓΥΡΕΣΙΝ
IAPYZAZ@AI
ΔΕ
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙ͂
ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΩΙ ΘΕΩΙ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΕΙ ΕΥΧΑΡΙΣΤΩ͂Ι,
ΤΩΙ ΕΓ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΗΣ ΑΡΣΙΝΟΗΣ ΘΕΩΝ ΦΙΛΟΠΑΤΟΡΩΝ,
ΞΟΑΝΟΝ TE ΚΑΙ ΝΑΟΝ XP[YEZOYN EN
EKAZTQI ΤΩΝ]
42 ΙΕ[ΡΊΩΝ KAI ΚΑΘΙΔΡΥΣΑΙ ΕΝ ΤΟΙΣ AAYTOIZ
META ΤΩΝ ΑΛΛΩΝ NAQN, ΚΑΙ EN TAIZ
ΜΕΓΑΛΑΙ͂Σ ΠΑΝΗΓΎΡΕΣΙΝ, EN AIZ EZOAEIAI
ΤΩΝ NAQN TINONTAI, ΚΑΙ TON TOY
©EOY ENIMANOYE EY[XAPIETOY NAON
ZYNE—]
43 Z[OAEYEIN: ONNE A EYEHMOE HI ΝΥΝ TE
KAI ΕΙΣ TON ENEITA XPONON, ΕΠΙΚΕΙΣΘΑΙ
ΤΩΙ NAQI ΤΑΣ TOY BAXIAEQE ΧΡΥΣΑΣ
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΣ
AEKA
ΑΙΣ
MPOXKEIZETAI
ΑΣΠΙΣ, [KA@ANEP KAI EN! ΠΑΣΩΝ])
44 ΤΩΝ AZNIAOEIAQN BAZIAEION ΤΩΝ EN!
ΤΩΝ AAAQN NAQN: EXTAI A AYTON EN
74
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
ΤΩΙ ΜΕΣΩΙ
H KAAOYMENH
BAZIAEIA
YXENT, HN ΠΕΡΙΘΕΜΕΝΟΣ EIZHACEN EIZ
TO EN ΜΕΜΦΙΕΙ IEPON, ΟΠΩΣ EN AYTAI
ZYN-]
45 ΤΕΛΕΣΘΗΙ TA NOMIZOMENA THI MAPAAHΨΕΙ THE ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΣ. EMIOEINAI AE KAI EN!
TOY ΠΕΡῚ ΤΑΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΣ ΤΕΤΡΑΓΏΝΟΥ
KATA TO ΠΡΟΕΙΡΗΜΕΝΟΝ.
BAZIAEION
OYAAKTHPIA XPY[ZA AYO, OIE ΕΓΓΡΑΦΗΣΕΤΑΙ O-]
46 ΤΙ EXTIN TOY BAZIAEQE TOY ΕΠΙΦΑΝΗ
ΠΟΙΉΣΑΝΤΑΣ THN TE ANQ XWPAN KAI
THN ΚΑΤΩ ΚΑΙ EME! THN ΤΡΙΑ[ΚΊΑΔΑ
TOY TOY (sic) MEZOPH, EN HI TA FENEOAIA TOY BAZIAEQE ΑΓΕΤΑΙ, OMOINE
AE ΚΑΙ [THN EMTAKAIAEKATHN TOY
ΦΑΩΦΙ]
47 EN ΗΙ ΠΑΡΕΛΑΒΕΝ ΤΗΝ BAZIAEIAN MAP[A]
TOY NATPOZ, ENQNYMOYE NENOMIKAZIN
EN ΤΟΙΣ IEPOIZ, Al AH NOAAQN ΑΓΑΘΩΝ
ΑΡΧΗΓΟΙ [ΠΊΑΣΙΝ EIZIN, ATEIN TAZ HMEPAX ΤΑΥΤΑΣ EOP[TAZ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΝΗΓΎΡΕΙΣ
ΕΝ ΤΟΙΣ KATA THN AI-]
48 ΓΥΠΤΟΝ IEPOIZ KATA MHNA, ΚΑΙ ZYNTEAEIN EN AYTOIZ ΘΥΣΙΑΣ KAI ΣΠΟΝΔΑΣ
ΚΑΙ TAAAA TA NOMIZOMENA, KA@A KAI EN
TAIZ AAAAIZ MANEHFYPEZIN TAZ TE
ΓΙΝΟΜΕΝΑΣ ΠΡΟΘΕΙ͂ΣΕΙΣ ΤΟΙΣ δ ὩΣ NA-]
49 ΡΕΈΧΟΜΕΝΟΙΣ ΕΝ ΤΟΙΣ ΙΕΡΟΙΣ. ΑΓΕΙ͂Ν AE
EOPTHN ΚΑΙ MANHFYPIN ΤΩΙ AIQNOBIAI
KA! HTANHMENQI! YNO TOY OA BAZIAE!
ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΩΙ CEN! ΕΠΙΦΑΝΕΙ ΕΥ̓ΧΑΡΙΣΤΩΙ
KAT ENI[AYTON ΕΝ ΤΟΙΣ ἹΕΡΟΙ͂Σ ΤΟΙΣ
ΚΑΤΑ ΤΗΝ]
THE
GREEK
TEXT
75
50 XQPAN ANO THE NOYMHNIAZ TOY E2YO
ΕΦ HMEPAZ MENTE, EN AIX KAI ZTEOANἨἩΦΟΡΗΣΟΥΣΙΝ ΣΥΝΤΕΛΟΥΝΤΕΣ ΘΥΣΙΑΣ
ΚΑΙ ΣΠΟΝΔΑΣ KAI TAAAA TA ΚΑΘΉΚΟΝΤΑ
ΠΡΟΣΑΓΟΡΕΎΕΣΘΑΙ AE ΤΟΥΣ ΙΕΡΕΙΣ ΤΩΝ
AAAQN ΘΕΩΝ]
51 ΚΑΙ TOY ΘΕΟῪΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ EYXAPIZTOY
ΙΕΡΕΙΣ ΠΡῸΣ ΤΟΙ͂Σ ΑΛΛΟΙΣ ΟΝΟΜΑΣΙΝ
ΤΩΝ ΘΕΩΝ ΩΝ IEPATEYOYEZIN, ΚΑΙ ΚΑΤΑΧΩΡΙΣΑΙ ΕἸΣ ΠΑΝΤΑΣ ΤΟῪΣ ΧΡΗΜΑΤΙΣΜΟΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΔΙΑΚΤΥΛΙΟῪΣ OYE
ΦΟΡΟΥΣΙ ΠΡΟΣΕΓΚΟΛΑΠΕΣΘΑΙ ΤΗΝ]
52 ΙΕΡΑΤΕΙΑΝ AYTOY. ΕΞΕΙΝΑΙ ΔΕ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΙΣ
ΑΛΛΟΙΣ ΙΔΙΩΤΑΙΣ ΑΓΕΙΝ ΤῊΝ EOPTHN
ΚΑΙ TON ΠΡΟΕΙΡΗΜΕΝΟΝ NAON ΙΔΡΥΕΣΘΑΙ
ΚΑΙ EXEIN ΠΑΡ ΑΥΤΟΙΣ ΣΥΝΤΕΛΟΙΥΝΤΑΣ
TA NOMIMA EN ΕΟΡΤΑΙΣ ΤΑΙ͂Σ ΤΕ ΚΑΤΑ
ΜΗΝΑ ΚΑΙ Τ53 ΑΠΣ KAT ENIAYTON, ΟΠΩΣ ΓΝΩΡΙΜΟΝ HI
AIOTI ΟἹ EN ΑΙΓΎΠΤΩΙ. ΑΥΞΟΥΣΙ KAI TIΜΏΣΙ TON ΘΕΟΝ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΗ EYXAPIZTON
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΑ, KA@ANEP
ΝΟΜΙΜΟΝ
ΕΣΤΙ[Ν
AYTOIZ. TO ΔΕ ΨΗΦΙΣΜΑ TOYTO ΑΝΑΓΡΑΨΑΙ ΕΙΣ ΣΤΗ54 ΛΑΣ Σ]ΤΕΡΕΟΥ ΛΙΘΟΥ ΤΟΙΣ TE ΙΕΡΟΙΣ ΚΑΙ
ΕΓΧΩΡΙΟΙ͂Σ ΚΑΙ EAAHNIKOIZ FPAMMAZIN,
ΚΑΙ ΣΤΗΣΑΙ ΕΝ ΕΚΑΣΤΩΙ ΤΩΝ ΤΕ ΠΡΏΤΩΝ
ΚΑΙ ΔΕΥΤΕΡΩΝ [ΚΑΙ ΤΡΙΤΩΝ ΙΕΡΩΝ ΠΡῸΣ
THI ΤΟΥ ΑΙΩΝΟΒΙΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ EIKONI]
CHAPTER
I.—EARLY
LATION
PUBLICATIONS
OF
THE
OF
GREEK
III
THE
TEXT
DEMOTIC
ON
THE
TRANSROSETTA
STONE
The Demotic text on the ROSETTA
STONE was
first made available for study by the publication of
the facsimiles of the Stone mentioned above (p. 30).
In
1802
the
famous
Orientalist
SILVESTRE
DE
Sacy
thought that
he had _ identified
the equivalents of certain Greek proper names
(see his Lettre au Citoyen Chaptal, Paris: 1|’Imprimerie de la République), and in the same year
J. D. AKERBLAD published the statement that he
had not only done the same thing, but that he had
formulated a Demotic alphabet (see his Lettre
adressée au Citoyen de Sacy, Paris: 1Imprimerie
de la République).
In 1814 Youne read a com-
plete translation of the Demotic text before the
Society of Antiquaries of London, and published
it in the Museum Criticism, Cambridge, 1815, Part
VI, and in Archaeologia, London, 1817, vol. xviii.
A grammatical analysis of the two Egyptian texts
on the Stone by F. SALVOLINI appeared at Paris
in 1836, and it was asserted by scholars at the
time that he had derived much help in his interpretations from a perusal of the papers of CHAM-
POLLION LE JEUNE.
The Analyse grammatical du
THE
DEMOTIC
TRANSLATION
77
Texte Demotique du Décret de Rosette, which was
published§bysl2 F22J Ὁ δε SAULCY7in Parisin
1845, was a valuable work, and it had the effect
of putting the study of Demotic upon a scientific
footing among scholars.
But the first scholar who really understood
the meaning of the Demotic text on the Stone
was
H.
BruGscu,
Demotischer
Urkunden
who,
in
his
(Berlin,
translation of it, with a running
Sammlung
1850)
gave
a
commentary,
which showed
that he had discovered
the
true principle of its interpretation.
Five years
later he published his Grammaire Démotique,
wherein he explained the general principles of the
language and “ écriture populaire ’’ of the ancient
Egyptians.
In 1880 E. REvILLoNT published a
Chrestomathie Demotique, in which the words of
the Demotic text were separated, and side by
side with each was given its equivalent in French,
and its rendering in Greek on the Stone. Our
knowledge of the Demotic text was greatly increased by Dr. J. J. Hess, who in 1902 published,
at Freiburg, his valuable Dissertation entitled
Der Demotische Teil der Dreisprachigen Inscrift von
Rosette.
This work, which is, unfortunately,
out
of print and very scarce, contains word-for-word
and running translations, and a comparison of the
Demotic with the Greek text, and with fragments
of the hieroglyphic version. A careful copy of
the Demotic text was published by J. KRALL in
78
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
Part I of his Demotische Lesestiucke, Vienna, 18971903, and SETHE gave a transliteration of the
Demotic text, together with the original Greek,
arranged interlinearly under the hieroglyphic
text found on the Stone and on the Stele from
Annobairah in his Hieroglyphische Urkunden der
Graechisch-Romischen Zeit., 111, p. 169, Leipzig,
1916. Finally, the eminent Demotologist W.
SPIEGELBERG has given a critical edition of the
Demotic
text, with a transliteration,
translation
and notes in his Der demotische Text... der
Priesterdekret von Kanopus und Memphis (Rosettana), Heidelberg, 1922.
II.—ENGLISH
TRANSLATION
OF
THE
DEMOTIC
TRANSLATION
[THE DATE
OF THE
DECREE]
1 (In the oth year, the fourth day of the month
Ksntks,] which makes (1.6. is equivalent to)
the eighteenth day of the second month of
the season PER-T, of the PHARAOH’, the Young
One, who as PHARAOH hath appeared upon
the throne of his father, the lord of uraeicrown,
whose
renown
is
great,
who
hath
stablished EGypt, having beautified it, whose
heart
is disposed
benevolently
towards
the
1 The Demotic texts adds 4—u-s = Gnk hutcha senb, + |
us
1.6. ‘‘ life, strength, health [be to him],”’ after the manner of
the old Egyptian inscriptions.
ENGLISH
TRANSLATION
OF THE
DEMOTIC
79
gods, Horus oF ΝΌΒΤΙ, who hath beautified
the lives of men
and women,
Set-festival,! like Prau
TrEN
the lord of the
(or Tenn), the
king (Ati) like unto Ra,
2 [the King of UPPER AND LOWER EGypT], the
son of the Father-Loving Gods, the chosen
of
ῬΤΑΗ, to whom the Ra hath given victory,
the living image of AMEN, the son of the Ra,
PTOLEMY,
the everliving, the beloved of PTau,
the god who appeareth, whose goodness (or,
beauty) is splendid, the son of PTOLEMy, and
ARSINA
(ARSINOE),
the
Father-Loving
when
A1atTus, the son of AIATUS,
ALEXANDER,
3 the
Gods,
was priest of
and the SAviouR Gops, and
[BROTHER-Gops
and
the] WELL-DOoING
Gops, and the FATHER-LOVING
GopDs, and
PToLEMY, the god who appeareth, whose
benefits are splendid ; and PRA (PyRRuHA), the
daughter of PILINS (PHILINOS) was the bearer of
the gift of victory.before BRNIGA (BERENICE),
the Well-Doing [Goddess] ; and ARIA (AREIA),
the daughter of T1acns (DIOGENES), was the
bearer of the
4 basket before ARSINA (ARSINOE), the BrotherLoving [Goddess]; and HRANA (IRENE), the
daughter of PTOLEMY, was the priestess of
ARSINA (ARSINOE), the Father-Loving [Goddess].
1 Celebrated to renew the life of the king.
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
(THE INTRODUCTION]
On this day the DECREE:
The priests who direct the services, and the
ministrants (prophets ?), and the priests, who
enter into the sanctuaries to array the gods in
their apparel, and the scribes of the Books OF
THE
GoD,
and
the scribes
of the
HOUSE
OF
Lire, and the other priests from the temples
of EGYPT,
who come [to MEMPHIS] at the festival whereat
the PHARAOH PTOLEMy, the everliving, the
beloved of ῬΤΑΗ, the god who appeareth,
whose good deeds are splendid,
received the
office (or, dignity) of sovereign, from the hand
of his father, and had assembled in the house
of the god in MEN-NEFER
[thus] :—
(Memphis)
spake
[PTOLEMY V AS BENEFACTOR OF THE TEMPLES
ΟΕ EGypT]
Inasmuch as
everliving, the
the PHARAOH PTOLEMY, the
god who appeareth, whose
good deeds are splendid, the son of PHARAOH
and the Queen ARSINA (ARSINOE), the FatherLoving Gods, hath been in the habit of conferring many
benefits
upon
the temples
of
Ecypt, and upon all those who are under his
office as PHARAOH, since he was a god, the
son of a god, [and] a goddess, being a similitude
TPALNT, We
Ptolemy ‘V Epiphanes, arrayed in the apparel of a high priest, offering
incense to the gods.
(To face p. 81.
ENGLISH
TRANSLATION
OF THE
DEMOTIC
8ιὶ
of the god Horus, the son of Isis, the son of
OsIRIS, who saved his father Osiris, and his
heart being well-disposed towards the gods,
he hath given much silver and much grain for
the temples of Ecypr (Plate V),
7 and hath [incurred] many expenses in order
to bring peace again in EGypT, and to replace
order in the temples, and he hath bestowed
benefactions upon the whole army which were
under his office as PHARAOH.
{[PTOLEMY
V REDUCES SOME TAXES
ABOLISHES OTHERS]
AND
As concerning the taxes and contributions
which remained [unpaid] in EGYPT, some of
them
he
reduced,
and
some
of
them
he
remitted entirely, in order to bring it about
that the soldiers and all the other people might
enjoy prosperity during the time of his overlordship.
8 The taxes which were due to the PHARAOH
from the people who lived in Ecypt, and all
the other folk who [lived] under his beneficent
rule as PHARAOH, and the arrears of payments,
which
amounted
to
a
very
large
sum,
he
remitted entirely.
[The people who were in prison, and those
who were suffering through long-standing
suits, he set free.|
F
82
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
[PTOLEMY V CONFIRMS THE REVENUES OF THE
TEMPLES AND RESTORES THEIR FORMER
REVENUES |
Concerning the offerings made to the gods,
and the silver and the grain for the maintenance of the priests
which should be given yearly to the temples,
and the contributions to the gods which were
made from the vineyards, and from the fruit
and vegetable gardens, and all the other things
which they possessed in the time of his father,
he ordered that they should continue to
remain their property.
He commanded also
in respect of the priests that they should not
pay out of the property of the priests, contributions larger than those which they had paid
in the time of his father, up to the first year of
his own reign.
[ABOLITION OF THE PRIESTS’ ANNUAL JOURNEY
TO ALEXANDRIA, AND REDUCTION OF THE
BYSSUS TAX]
He released the people
10 who were employed in the temples from the
journey which they had hitherto made annually
to the House oF ALEXANDER (7.6. ALEXANDRIA).
He commanded that sailors should not be
seized [by the press gangs].
ENGLISH
TRANSLATION
OF THE
DEMOTIC
83
He remitted two-thirds of the cloths of
byssus which the temples had been obliged to
pay to the house of PHARAOH.
[THE RESTORATION OF PEACE IN THE COUNTRY
AND THE GRANTING OF AN AMNESTY]
He restored to their former condition all the
things which for a long time past had ceased to
be observed (9).
11 And he took the greatest care that what it
had been customary to do for the gods should
be performed in a right and fitting manner.
And he permitted men to enjoy justice, even as
did ΤΉΟΤΗ, the Great Great.
And he commanded concerning those soldiers
who had returned from the fighting, and also
concerning the other men who, during the
revolt which had taken place in Ecypt, had
followed another course, that they
12 should betake themselves to their own homes,
and should be allowed to resume possession of
the properties which they had held formerly.
[PTOLEMY
V PROTECTS EGYPT FROM ENEMIES
FROM WITHOUT]
He took the greatest care to dispatch infantry,
cavalry, and ships against those who had come
by land and by sea to make war upon EGYPT.
To effect this he expended very large sums in
silver and grain in order that the temples and
the inhabitants of EGypT should enjoy peace.
F2
THE
84
[PTOLEMY
ROSETTA
STONE
V PUNISHES THE
LYCOPOLIS]
REBELS
OF
He sent an expedition against the town of
SHKAN, which the enemy
13 had fortified in every [possible] way, and its
interior was filled with arms and every kind of
munition of war.
He surrounded the aforesaid town with walls and dams on its outer
side against the enemy who were inside it, and
who had done many harmful (or, wicked)
things against EGypt, for they had forsaken
the way of PHARAOH'S commandments and the
commands
He blocked up the canals which
14 of the gods.
carried water into the aforesaid town.
The
PHARAOHS his predecessors had never been
able to do such a thing ; to carry this out he
spent a very large sum of silver.
He stationed foot-soldiers and cavalry on
the aforementioned canals, [both] to watch
them and to make safe [the dams] against the
inundations of the waters [of the NILE], which
in the eighth year [of his reign] were very
great,
15 when the aforementioned canals poured [their]
waters over many of the very low-lying lands.
The PHARAOH captured the town by assault
in a very short time. He slaughtered the
enemy who were in their innermost places,
ENGLISH
TRANSLATION
OF THE
DEMOTIC
85
and he handed them over to the block of
justice, even as did the RA, and Horus, the
son of Isis, had done in times of old those who
had been their enemies in the self-same place.
[PUNISHMENT OF THE LEADERS OF THE REVOLT
AGAINST
16
ΡΤΟΙΈΜΥ
IV PHILOPATOR|
Now, the enemy had gathered together the
soldiers, and had induced them to stir up
riots and disorder in the [various] Nomes, and
they had plundered the temples, and had
forsaken the way of PHARAOH and his father.
These the gods delivered over into his power
in ΜΕΜΡΗΙΒ at the festival of the reception of
his exalted Office from the hand of his father,
and he had them slain by means of the wood
[1.6. he either crucified them or impaled them].
[REMISSION OF ARREARS OF TAXES AND CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE TEMPLES]
He
remitted
the arrears of taxes which were
17
due to PHARAOH up to the ninth year [of his
reign], which amounted to a very largesum
in silver, and large quantities of grain.
[And
he remitted also the value of the cloths of
byssus, for which the temples were in debt,
and they were lable to pay to the House of
PHARAOH as a tax, as well as the balance (?)
which was determined (?) upon, which they
had [already] paid up to that time.
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
And he also commanded concerning the
grain—now one Artab was levied upon every
aruva (1.6. acre) of the lands which were
sacrosanct property,
18 and also one vessel of wine was levied upon
every arura of the vineyard lands which were
sacrosanct property—{PHARAOH] withdrew [his
claim in each case].
[PTOLEMY V PROVIDES
FOR THE SACRED
ANIMALS, AND THE WORSHIP OF THE
GODS ; HIS REWARD FOR THE SAME]
He bestowed many benefactions upon APIs’
and MNEVIS,” and the other sacred animals of
the EGypTIANS, far more than his predecessors
had done, for his mind was at all times wholly
occupied
with
plans for their
benefit.
He
gave what was necessary for their embalmment and burials, which were performed in a
splendid and honourable manner;
and he
supplied everything which was required for
their temples (Plate VI).
19 whensoever a festival had to be celebrated,
and he provided the burnt offerings which had
to be set before them, and everything else
which befitted their cult. The honours which
appertained to the temples, and the other
honours of EGypt, he made to be observed (or,
‘ The Bull-god of Memphis.
* The Bull-god of Heliopolis.
AVL.
ceteeenecaeaaiesaeeemnammam
ss
mimmemameemenel
eSiie
soaeaieaiemeeieaabiaamimemenitomammemmannel
PEATE
et
Ptolemy
V Epiphanes
making offerings to the ram-headed god
Khnemu, lord of Qebhet and Senmut.
To face p. 86.)
if if
ENGLISH
TRANSLATION
OF THE
ΘΕΜΟΤΙΟ
87
paid) each in its own special manner according
to the law which regulated the same.
He
gave large quantities of gold, and silver, and
grain, and other things to the temple-towns (?)
of Apis.
He made new decorations and works
to be carried out
20 whereof the workmanship was exceedingly
beautiful.
He caused new temples, and sanctuaries, and
altars, to be built for the gods, and he restored
[all] their former arrangements ; for he possessed the heart of a god who was benevolently
disposed towards the gods, and he sought out (?)
means for increasing the honour due to them
so that they renew the period of his overlord-
ship during his reign as PHARAOH in a suitable
manner.
In return for these [efforts] the gods have
given to him victory, [and] power, [and]
might, [and] strength,
2 μιὰ [and] health, [and] every [other] kind of good
thing, and his Office as PHARAOH shall remain
established for him and for his children for
ever.
[THE PRIESTS DECREE ADDITIONAL HONOURS
FOR PTOLEMY V AND HIS ANCESTORS]
WITH
GOOD
FORTUNE!
It hath entered into the heart[s] of the
priests of all the temples in UPPER EGYPT and
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
in Lower Ecypt, to multiply the honours
which [are paid in] the temples to the PHARAOH
PToLEMY,
the
everliving, the
god who
appeareth, whose benefits are splendid,
22 and those of the FATHER-LOVING Gops who
begot him, and those of the WELL-DOING
Gops who begot those who begot him, and
those of the BROTHER-LOVING GODS who
begot those who begot them, and those of
the SAVIOUR
Gops,
the fathers of his fathers.
[STATUES OF PTOLEMY V AND THE LOCAL
CHIEF GODS ARE TO BE SET UP IN ALL
THE TEMPLES]
And there shall be set up a statue of the
PHARAOH PTOLEMY, the everliving, the god
who appeareth,
whose benefits are splendid,
and they shall call it
23 ““ PTOLEMY, the PROTECTOR OF EGYPT,’ whereof the interpretation is, “ PrTOLEMY who protecteth Ecypt,”’ together with a statue of the
god of the city [in the act of] giving him a
sword
of victory,
in the temple
and in each
and every temple; [these shall be set up] in
conspicuous places in the temples, and they
shall be made after the fashion of the workmanship of the Egyptian handicraftsman.
And the priests shall minister to the statues
in the temples, [that is to say] in each and
every temple, three times daily,
ENGLISH
24
TRANSLATION
OF THE
DEMOTIC
89
and they shall set before them the implements (?) of the cult, and they shall perform
for the other rites and ceremonies which it is
right and proper to perform, even those which
are performed for the other gods at the
festivals and during the processions on the
aforenamed days.
[A
WOODEN
STATUE
GOLDEN SHRINE
TEMPLES]
OF PTOLEMY V_ IN A
TO BE SET UP IN THE
And they shall set up a divine portraitstatue of the PHARAOH PTOLEMyY, the god who
appeareth, whose benefits are splendid, [the
son of] PToLEMy and the Queen (literally
Pharaohess) ARSINOE, the FATHER-LOVING
Gops, and a shrine of gold in the temples,
25 that is to say in each and every temple, and
they shall place them in the most holy places
in the sanctuaries side by side with the other
shrines of gold.
When the great festivals are being celebrated,
during which the gods are made to appear
from out of their shrines, the shrine of the god
who appeareth, whose benefits are splendid,
shall also be made to appear with them.
Now in order that the shrine may be known
to men both now and to the end of time, they
shall set upon this shrine ten gold crowns of
PHARAOH, with an uraeus attached to each one
THE
90
ROSETTA
STONE
of them, according to what is usually done in
26 the case of crowns of gold, and they shall be
placed upon the shrine instead of the uraei
which
are
on
other
crown
Y
shall
be
shrines,
and
in the
middle
the double
of
them.
For it was in that crown that the PHARAOH
appeared in the temple of MEMPHIS when
there was done to him what is prescribed by
the Law at the reception of the Office of
PHARAOH.
And upon the upper side of the
rectangle,
which
is away
from
the crown,
in
the middle
27 of the gold crowns described above, a papyrus
and a reed shall be placed. And they shall
set a vulture on a basket, with a reed below it,
on the right-hand corner of the gold shrine,
and they shall set an uraeus, with a basket
beneath him, on a papyrus on the left-hand
corner [of the shrine]. And the interpretation
thereof is “‘ The PHARAOH hath made bright
UPPER and LOWER
EGyPT.”’
[SPECIAL FESTIVALS
ARE TO BE ESTABLISHED
IN HONOUR OF PTOLEMY V]
Inasmuch as it hath already been established
by law that the last day (the 30th) of the
fourth month of the season of SHEMU (MESORE),
28 which is the Birthday of the PHARAOH, is to
be celebrated in the temples as a festival and
a day of rejoicing, and also the seventeenth
ENGLISH
TRANSLATION
OF THE
DEMOTIC
ΟἹ
day of the second month of the season AKHET
(Paopui), the day on which the ceremonies
connected with his reception of the Office of
PHARAOH
are performed—now
the _ birth
of PHARAOH, and his reception of the Office of
PHARAOH were the beginning of the happiness
(or, prosperity) in which men have participated
-—tnerefore these (αν, that 1s to say the
seventeenth and the thirtieth days of each
month,
shall be celebrated
as festivals
in all
the temples of EGyPT.
29 And burnt offerings, and drink offerings, and
every other kind of offering shall be brought
every month, according to the regulations
which apply to the other festivals, at both
these festivals.
And these things which the
people bring shall be destined for the men
who serve in the temples. |
And moreover,
the days from the first day
of the first month of the season AKHET,
to the
fifth day of the same, shall be celebrated as a
five-day festival and a period of rejoicing in
the temples and throughout all EGyprT in
honour
of the PHARAOH
PTOLEMY,
the ever-
living, the god who appeareth, whose benefits
are splendid.
And the people shall wear
garlands
30 and shall bring burnt offerings, and drink
offerings, and [all] the other things which it
is right and proper [to bring].
THE
92
[THE
PRIESTS
ROSETTA
STONE
OF PTOLEMY V SHALL
A NEW TITLE]
ASSUME
The priests who are in the temples of
EcyptT, that is to say, in each and every
temple shall, in addition to the other priestly
titles which they have, be called “ Priests
of the god who appeareth, whose benefits are
splendid.’’ And they shall write this title in
all their official documents, and they shall
write and engrave the title of the rank of
“priest of the god who appeareth, whose
benefits are splendid ”’ upon their rings.
[PRIVATE
PAYING
31
INDIVIDUALS MAY PARTICIPATE IN
THESE HONOURS TO PTOLEMY V]
Such private individuals as wish to make a
model of the golden shrine of the god who
appeareth, whose benefits are splendid, and
to bring it forth when they are living in their
houses,
shall
be
permitted
to
do
so.
And
they shall at the same time celebrate the
above-mentioned festivals and days of rejoicing,
every month and every year, so that it may
be well known that those who dwell in Ecypt
pay honour to the god who appeareth, whose
benefits are splendid, according to the law.
[THE PROMULGATION OF THE DECREE]
And the Decree shall be written upon a
tablet of hard stone in the writing of the words
TRANSLITERATION
OF
THE
DEMOTIC
93
of the god, in the writing of letters (or, books)
and in the writing of the IonrIANs, and they
shall set it up in the first temples,
[and] in
the second temples, [and] in the third temples
close to the gold
PHARAOH.
statue
of
the
everliving
III.—TRANSLITERATION OF THE DEMOTIC
TRANSLATION OF THE DECREE
[Ha-t-sp
n
9-t
Ksntks
rmt
(n)
Kmi
Pr-aa
a.u.s.
pa
ssu
4]
nti
ar
abt 2-nu
pr-t
ssu
18
ha
(n)
Pr-aa
hal
a-ar
abt
a.u.s. (n) ta as-t (n) paif it nb na
nti na-aa taif ph-t a-ar smn
Kmi
ti-t
na-nfr-f
nti
na-mnb
hati-f
a-ar
(n)
Griu
auf
na
ntru nti hr paif tchtchi (djdji) a-ar ti-t
na-nir pa anh n na rmtu pa nb ἢ na
rmpu n hbs m-kti Pth Tni 4a.u.s. Pr-aa
m-kti
Pa-Ra
[Pi-aalauish) nena “tshid “nti bri} na tshu
nti hri pa shri n na ntru mr itu r stp
Pth r ti nf Pa-R& pa tchra (djra) pa
tut’
anh
(πη)
Amn
pa
‘shri’
(n)
Pa-Ra
Ptlumis
anh tcht (djt) Pth mr pa ntr
pr nti na-an taif mt-nfrt
Ptlumis arm
Arsina na ntru mr itu au πᾶ
Algsantrs
arm
na
{na ntru
Haw
true
Ptlumias
ntru
snu
mr)
pa
nti
nhm
arm]
πὰ
ntr
arm
na ntru mnbu arm
earn)
ΡΞ Εν ἰδ
pr
nti
na-an
taif
THE
94
mt-nint)
Aiatus
ROSEITA
esas
STONE
suatus )retbray
isastrn
Pilins (n) fi shp (n) pa kni m-bah Brniga
ta mnh-t (Ὁ) Aria sa-t ἢ Tiagns (n) fi
{tn m-bah
Arsijna
ta mr
sn r MHrana
sa-t n Ptlumias ἢ uab Arsina ta mr it-s
n hru apn ut na mr-shn arm na ntru
hm arm na uabu nti shm (r) pa nti-uab
r ar mnbn na ntru arm na shu mdji-ntr
arm na shu
pr-anh arm na kiu uabu
a-ar aal n na arpiu (n) Kmi
{r Mn-nfr n] pa hb n pa shp ta aau
(n) hri r ar Pr-aa a.u.s. Ptlumias
anh
tehta (djt) ἰὸν πὰρ wpa) mtr “pr inti smasan
talf smit-ninte: ἢ
ttre pair τὸ “asabe tut
h-t-ntr
(n) Mn-nfr
n-t-t
hprate
a-ar
(phen
tcht (djt) 2222%
(ar
-<.Br-far
atu.s.
Ptlumias anh tcht (djt) pa ntr pr nti
na-an
taif
mt-nfrt
(sa)
Pr-aa
4.us.
Ptlumias
[arm ta Pr-aa-t] Arsina na ntru mr-itu
mt-nfrt ashai ἢ na arpiu (n) Kmi arm
na nti hn taif aaw (n) Pr-aa 4.u.s. tru
aut niintr shri (nm) τς ἰοῦ aut nin or
Hr -sa ‘Ast sa Usir 4-ar= nhti paif it Usir
ry hati-fi-muboalehr, najentrisr
ahs
tet
ht ashai pr-t ashai
:
.
reese @shai
n
ma
arpiu
r ti-t
bpr
(n) Kmi
sgrh
hn
ou r smn na arpiu r uah-f ti-t shp ἢ
ta mtgti nti hn taif aw (n) hri trs pa hti
pa shkr r un-nau
aha n Καὶ un-nau
TRANSLITERATION
Ksh-f
hnu
OF
un-nau
THE
ui-f
DEMOTIC
r-ru
95
n_tchatcha
(djadja) r ti-t bpr pa msha arm πᾶ kiu
rmt tru auu nfr (n) paif ha nti
Vei-daeracucss
ἀρ σι, ἢ yy)Pr-aa<:4:0.S.1
ἢν
un-nau 4-ui na rmtu nti n Kmi arm na
nti n taif aau (n) Pr-aa 4u.s. tru auu
ar apt asha-t ui-f r ru na rmtu ἢ un-nau
tchth
(djth)
arm
nau
un-nau
a-uil-u
n ssu
ashai
ui-f
r-ru
n
ntru
na
htp-ntru
na
un
luh
hn-f-s_
(r)-tb
arm
na
ht
na
pr-tu nti auu ti-t-st n sntgsi r naiu
[arpiu] hr rnp't arm na tniu nti bpr n na
ntru n na ahu arli na ahu tgi pa sp nkt
tru.
r
paif
it r
un-nau
auu
mht
ti-t mnu
hr-ru
πρὶ ἀδο
τὸ tik: ties
n hua pa un-nau
auu
10
n-amu_
hn-f-s
(r)-tb
Daltile
ate ab
ti't-s r hn_ hat-sp
I-t a-ar-hr paif it ui-f r na rmtu
{nti hn] na aauu n na arpiu ἢ pa aun r
un-nau
auu ar-f r pa a (n) Algsantrs
hr rmp‘t hn-f-s r tm kp rmt hn ui-f r ta
tnit % ἢ na shes-nsuu r un-nau auu aru
n pr Pr-aa a.u.s. n na arpiu mt nb 4a-ar
haa paiu gi n ssu ashai
r paiu tchnf (djnf) τὶ
181
4-ar-hr
4n
auf
an
n-amu
[(?)mtr] auf ar nbu nb r πὶ aru na nti ἢ
snti n aru n na ntru n gi auf mtru pais
smt
n
ti-t aru
ar Thuti
ΠΩ
ntieanu
pa
pa
aa
waco
hp n
na
da
hn-f-s
pa
hn
ma
rmtu
an
r h pa
(τὴ tba
rmtusknkn
arm
THE PROSE PPA
96
12
SrONE
pa sp rmt a-ar bpr hr kt-h-t mi-t (?) ἢ
pa thth a-ar bpr (n) Kmi τ ti-t
[stau] st (ἡ) naiu maau mtu naiu nktu
bpr hrru ar-f nbu nb r tit shm
msha
htr biri ub na a-ar aai n pa at pa im
r ar ah ub Kmi αἱ hi ashai n ht pr-t
ub nai r ti-t bpr na arpiu
nti (n) Kmi auu sgrh shm-f
arm na rmtu
r ta rsa‘t (n)
Shkan
13 [r un] nau anb (n) t-t na sbau hr ka-t
nb r un stbh adshai sbti nb (n) pais hn
arb-f ta rsa‘t (n) rn-s ἢ sbt un (n) pais
bnr (r) tba na sbau r un-nau
(n) pais
hn r un-nau uahu ar gma ashai r Kmi
auu haa pa mit n pa
a.u.s. arm pa ash-shn
14 [In na]
ntru
ti-f
ti-t shm
mu
n ta rsat
na
Pr-aau
ashai
a.u.s.
ἢ hi ubu
tnu
hatiu
ash-shn
na
iaru
(n) m-s
ar-s
ap-f msha
ἢ
r
un-nau
r bn
m-kt-s
rmt
Pr-aa
rh
aru
ht
rtui-f
htr
Τ τὰ (n) na iaru n rnu r hrh r-ru r-ti-t
utchau (udja) r tba na mhu ἢ pa mu r
un-nau aiu ἢ ha-t-sp 8t
15 r Ra
atn
ian nh
ashai ἃ
ta rsa‘t
n
mus nant
mtiu m-shs
rmm-s
{πεῖ} sn
ant
thai Pr-ada 4.u.s.
(n) tchra (djra)
(n) t-t n
ssu sbk ar-f ar shi (n) na sbau r un-nau
n pais hn ar-f st n 2RRewes
ae
h pa ar Pa-Ra arm Hr-sa-As‘t ἢ na a-ar
ar sba r-ru n na maau n
TRANSLITERATION
16 mu
(n) ta
ha-t
ha-tu
OF
na
auu
bpr
rina
arpiu
auu
arm
paif
it ti na
THE
sbau
r thth
DEMOTIC
a-ar
tutu
tshu
auu
gma
n Pr-da
4.us.
ar-shi
n-amu
na
haa pa mit
ntru
97
ar-f
msha
(n) Mn-nfr hn pa hb n pa shp ta aaw
(n) hri r ar-f (n)-t-t paif it ti-f smau (?)
st (n) pa bt ui-f r na spu (n)
17 Pr-4a d.u.s. nti aui na arpiu r hn (r)
ha-tsp gt auu ar ap-t n ht pr-t 4shai
pais
smt
n
sun
na
shs
nsutu
nti
aui
na
arpiu hn na nti auu aru r pr Pr-da 8.1.5.
arm pa sta nti mn (n) nau aru r hn (r)
pa tia
(n) sut
(n) rmm-f hn-f-s
an
r I ah r un-nau-aru
(r) tba
shti-f n
pa
na
ahu n pa ntr-htp pais
18 ἘΠῚ
ἢ
gpa
ἀρ
ἢ
ah
u(n)snacaha
ΤΣ
ἢ
na htp-ntru n na ntru ui-f r-ru ar-f mtMinteeashaign()ihlapa
Ur-mr earn nas kiu
auau nti hui (n) Kmi (n) hua nau un-nau
nau
un-nau
ha-f
ash-shn
(n) tia
uabu
taiu
ub
aru
(r)
hati-f
nb
au-f
ti-t
kis-t
auu
4i auu
thai na nti auu
τῷ shniu r naiu arpiu auu
ma
hr
paiu
nti
auu
shash
au-f
ar hb auu
ar δι]
ha-tu arm pa sp mt nti ph (n) aru na mtu
ph-tu nti ph n na arpiu arm na_ ἘΠῚ
mt-ph-tu
rh
(n)
Kmi
pa hp ti-f nb
nkt ub ta ast
(n) mai n ip-t
ar-f
smnu
ht pr-t ashai
Hap
au.
hr paiu
arm
ti-f mnnku
gi
kt-h't
ta
ip-t
G
THE
98
20
na-an-s
ROSETTA
m-shs
ti-f
STONE
mnnku_
ha-t-ntr §knhi
bau (n) mai (n) ntru ti-f ar kt-ht paiu
gi auf n ir(sic)'t (vead hati) n ntr mnb
hr na ntru auf shn na mt-ph-tu (n) na
arpiu r ti-t aru (n) mai (n) paif ha nti
Preaa Buss! Ὁ) θῶ ign inti ph τ πὸ πΘ
ntru (n) ta shb-t (n) nai pa tchra (djra)
pa
21
snbi
kni pa nash
arm
na
kiu
pa utcha
(udja)
pa
mt-nfru
tru r
tai-f
aau
arm
naif
hrtu
(n) Pr-da
8.1.5.
smn
sha tcht
(djt) arm
pa shni
(n)
na
uabu
na
arpiu
na
mtu-ph-tu
nti mtu
Pr-aa
(n)
hr-rf
nfr ph-s ἢ hati
(n) Kmi
8.1.5.
ankh tcht (djt) pa ntr pr nti
mt-nfrt hn na arpiu
22
na-an
arm na nti mtu na ntru mr itu
bpr-f arm nti mtu na ntru mnbu
tru
Ptlumias
a-ar
a-ar
taif
ti-t
ti-t
bpr na a-ar ti-t bpr-f arm na nti mtu na
ntru snu a-ar ti-t hpr na a-ar ti-t hpru
arm
na
nti
mtu
na
ntru
nti
nhm
na
Ttu
(n) naif itu τ ti-t adiu mtuu ti-t aaha ua
tutu. (n) Pr-da d.u.s. Ptlumias anh _ tcht
(djt) pa ntr pr nti na-an taif mt-nfrt
23 mtuu tcht (djt) nf Ptlumias ntch (ndj) Bki
nti au paif uhm Ptlumias a-ar nbti Kmi
arm ua tutu (n) pa ntr (n) ta nau-t auf
ti-t nf bpsh kni n pa arpi arpi sp-2 (n)
pa maa nti unh n pa arpi auu rr ἢ ipt
rmt (n) Kmi mtu na uabu shms na tutuu
nN pa arpi arpi sp-2 sp-3 hr hru
TRANSLITERATION
24 mtuu
OF
haa tbh a-ar
THE
DEMOTIC
hru mtuu
ar nu
IS
pa
sp
mt nti (n) hp (n) aru (r) h pa nti auu
arf (n) na kiu ntru (n) na hbu na hau n
na hruu (n) rnu mtuu ti-t ha shm ntr (n)
Pr-da 4.u.s. Ptlumias pa ntr pr nti na-an
tat
τη τὺ
πα
Ptlumias-
arm:
ta
<Preaa‘t
Arsina na ntru mr Pr-aa (read itu) arm
ta ga-t n nb pa arpi
tit htp-s
(n) pa _ oti
25 arpi sp-2 mtuu
udb[u] arm na kiu gau au ar na hbu 4aiu
nti
auu
ti-t ha na
ti-t ha ta ga-(t)
taif
mt-nfrt
ga-(t)
n
mtuaeti-t
n-amu
bpr
mtuu
(n) pa
ntru
ntr
nti
na-an
r-ti-t
bpr-f
armu
pr
auu
sun
ta
pa hru
arm
pa
sp tia nti an-au
ΠῚ
ΠΡ
ΤΟ
Π
ἢ
Prada”
ans:
1
ua-t a4rai n-amu r ua rh pa nti
26 (n) hp n arf r na shnu (n) nb r tchatcha
(djadja) (n) ta ga-(t) n ta shb-t (n) na
araiu nti hpr hr tchatcha (djadja) (n) pa sp
ga mtuu pa shnt hpr (n) ta mte-t (mti-t)
(n) na shnu bpr mtu-f r ha Pr-ada 8.0.5.
n-am-f (n) h-t ntr (n) Mn-nfr auu ar nf ἢ
na nti n hp n aru (n) pa shp ta aau (n)
hri mtuu haa (n) ta r(-t) hri-t (n) aft nti
(n) pa bnr (n) na shnu (n) pa mti (mte)
27 (n) pa shn (n) nb nti sh hri ua-t uatch-t
(uadj-t) arm ua shma mtuu haa na 4raiu hr
ua-t nbu r ua shma hirr-s hr -pr-amnti r
pa
kh
(n) nb
(r) tchatcha
(djadja)
(n) ta
ga-(t)
mtuu
ua-t
r
nbu
G2
haa
4rai
ua-t
THE
100
ROSEDIA
STONE
hrr-s. ~hreua) jute τ΄ labi nti) au) paifsulim
Pr-4a a.u.s. a-ar shtch (shdj) shmai mbhi
(n)-t-t hpr-f au 4nu shmu 4rki nti auu ar pa
28 hru ms Pr-aa 4.u.s. n-am-f hpr auf smn
(n) hb ha (n) ma arpiu ta ha-t pais smt
(n) 2-nu pr-t (stc) ssu 17 nti auu ar nf na
aru pa shp ta aau (n) bri n-amf (r?) ta
hat-t na mt-nfru a-ar hpr (n) rmt nb pa
ms Pr-da 4.u.s. anh tcht (djt) arm pa shp
ta..aau {06} αὐτὶ (t) sariean nam hruu ssi, τη
arki (n) hb hr abt nb bn na arpiu (n) Kmi
tru
mtuu
Ὁ Srl ἀν
na
30
“kin
ar
Palspe
“hbu
Mittin
(nj) pa
ΝΣ
slip sah) Aearo
2) hr
abt
(ἢ
*naenti
auu aru (n) abi mtuu tshu ... na rmtu
nti shms (n) pa arpi mtuu ar hb ha (n)
na arpiu arm Kmi tr-f (n) Pr-ada 4.us.
Btlumiasseank
tchty(djt)a) payin temper
οι
na-an taif mt-nfrt hr rnp-t tpi a-ht ssu I
shaa hru 5 auu tha-i kl(m)
auu ar grl utn arm pa sp mt nti ph (n)
aru na uabu ntin na arpiu (n) Kmi arpi
sp-2 mtuu tcht (djt) nu na uabu (n) pa
ntr
pr nti
na-an
taif
mt-nfrt
n
uah
r
na
kiu rn n uab mtuu sh-f ἢ gin tchta (djla)
mt nb mtuu sh ta aau n uab (n) pa ntr
pr nti na-an taif mt-nfrt (n) naiu_ gltiu
mtuu
shf-s
hr
oui atu mtu-s hpr aus aui t-t na rmtu msha
an nti auu τῇ (τ) ti-t ha pa smt (n)
TRANSLITERATION
ta ga-t
(n) nb
taif mt-nfrt
maau mtuu
n
Kmi
THE
DEMOTIC
pa
ntr
nti hri r ti-t
ar na hbu na
hr rnp-t mtuf
nti
(n)
OF
hpr aus
ti-t ph
pa
pr
nti
101
na-an
bpr-s (n) naiu
hau nti sh_ hri
sun
tcht
ntr
pr
(djt) na
nti
na-an
taif mt-nfrt
32
Eelepaantignshpyneart
mtuneshe
uiti
(n) ani
n
sha-t
mh-I
sh Uinn mtuu ti-t aaha-f n na arpiu
na arpiu mh-2 na arpiu mbh-3 4a-ar
t-t pa tut n
tchri
Pr-ada
(djri)
a.u.s.
sh
anh
pa ut ἢ
mt-ntr
tcht(djt)
sh
CHAPTER.
I.—EARLY
PUBLICATIONS
VERSION
ON
THE
1V
OF
THE
ROSETTA
HIEROGLYPHIC
STONE
The oldest published copies of the hieroglyphic
text on the ROSETTA STONE will be found in the
facsimile published by the Society of Antiquaries
of London in 1802-3; in the Description de
lEgypte Antique, tome v, plate 53 ; and in
Lepsius, Auswahl der wichtigsten Urkunden des
aegyptischen Alterthums, Leipzig, 1842, plate 18.
The first to attempt to translate any part of the
hieroglyphic text on the Stone was THOMAS
YounG, who published his ‘interpretation of
some parts of it” in Archaeologia, vol. xviii,
London, 1817,4ps 70 [Ne text. Withee ann
translation, was published by H. BrucGscu in his
Inscriptio Rosettana Mmeroglyphica, Berlin, 1851,
and another Latin translation, with the text, was
published by M. A. UHLEMANN
Rosettanae hieroglyphicae decretum
1853).
Further
attempts
(Inscriptionts
.. ., Leipzig,
to translate
the
text
were made by F. Cuasas (L’tnscription hiéroglyphique de Rosette, Chalon-sur-Saéne, 1867) ;
by S. SHARPE (The Rosetta Stone in hieroglyphics
PUBLICATIONS
and
Greek,
OF
HIEROGLYPHIC
London,
1871);
VERSION
and
a
103
facsimile
of the Stone, together with transcripts of the
Greek and hieroglyphic texts (printed in type),
and English translations were published by
ΒΟΡΟΘΕ (The Decrees of Memphis and Canopus,
London, 1904, 3 vols. (now out of print). The
best facsimile of the Stone, though on a comparatively small scale, was published by the
Trustees of the British Museum (The Rosetta
Stone,
London,
1913,
folio,
with
letterpress
by BuDGE).
As soon as Egyptologists were able to translate
the hieroglyphic text on the Stone, they realized
that more than one-half of it had been broken
away.
It was known as far back as 1848 that a
mutilated copy of the Decree of Memphis existed
on the walls of the great temple of Philae, but from
this only restorations of single words and very
short passages of the missing text could be made.
Baryon the
scighties);
of thelast century a
limestone stele inscribed with a copy of the
hieroglyphic version of the Decree of Memphis
SP
was
found
at
NUBAYRAH,
near
DAMANHUR
in
LoweER Ecypt.
The stele is rounded at the top
and is/4 it, 2 in. high and 1, ft<3 in, wide:
‘See
BouriAntT, “La stéle 5576 du Musée de Boulaq
et Vinscription de Rosette,” in the Recueil de travaux,
Paris,
Le décret de
1885,
vol. vi, pp.
1-20;
BAILLEr,
Memphis et les inscriptions de Rosette
et de Damanhour,
Paris, 1905 ; and AHMAD
BEY
104
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
KAMAL, Catalogue générale des antiquités égyptiennes, No. 22188, with a photographic reproduction. The best and most complete transcripts
of the hieroglyphic text are those of SETHE
(Urkunden,
iv, p. 169)
and SPIEGELBERG
(Kanopus und Memphis (Rosettana), Heidelberg,
1922).
II.—RUNNING
TRANSLATION
GLYPHIC
[THE DATING
N.B.—In
N1_
OF
THE
HIERO-
TRANSLATION
OF THE
DECREE]
this translation, N =Stele of Nubayrah and
R = Stele of Rosetta.
The ninth year, the fourth day of the month
of XANDIKOS, which is the equivalent of the
eighteenth day of the second month’ of the
season PER-T (7.6. the season of “ going
forth’’), according
to the inhabitants of
Ta-MER-T (2.e. the LAND OF THE INUNDATION, or EGypt), under the Majesty of the
Horus-RA,
the
YouTtu,
who
hath
ascended
as king upon the throne of his father, Lord
of the Crown of the South and of the Crown
of the North, mighty one of strength (or,
valour), the stablisher of the Two Lanps
(1.6. EGypt), who is the benefactor
beautifier) of TA-MER-T,
1 The Coptic Mekhir, ussup.
(or, the
HIEROGLYPHIC
N2
TRANSLATION
105
whose heart is benevolently disposed towards the gods, the Horus who vanquished
SET (NusTi) of NusB (7.e. OmBos),’ who is
vigorous of life for men, lord of the Set
festivals’
like
Ptau-TENN,
Prince,
like
Ra,
King of the South (UPPER EGypT) and the
North (LOWER: Ecypt), heir of the FatherLoving Gods (PHILOPATORES, 1.6. PrOLEMY IV
and Ὁ
Ομ;
the chosen
ors Pran,
Usr-ka-Ri,? the living image of AMEN, the
son of the Sun (RA), ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ, the everliving,
the beloved of PTau, the god who appeareth
{like the sun ?], the lord of benefactions (or,
beauties),
N 3
the son of PrOLEMY
and ARSINOE,
the two
Father-Loving Gods, when AIATUS, the son
of AIATUS, was priest of ALEXANDER, and of
the two Saviour Gods (SOTERES), and of the
two Brother-Gods
(ADELPHOI)
and of the two
Well-Doing Gods (EUCHARISTOI),
1 Greek
ἀντιπάλων
ὑπερτέρου;
the Demotic
has
‘‘he who
[stands] upon his enemy.”’ The old legend says that Osiris
and Horus stood upon Set when they had defeated him.
ERMAN has shown that Mmm?) is an incorrect representation
of a very ancient picture in which the Hawk of Horus is seen
leading captive 6,000 men.
2 The celebration of these festivals renewed, it was thought,
the life of kings.
3 This was the name of Ptolemy V as king of the South
and North.
106
THE
Ν 4
ROSETTA
STONE
and of the two Father-Loving Gods, and the
god who appeareth, the lord of benefits ; and
PyYRRHA,
daughter
of
PHILINUS,
was
the
bearer of the prize of victory (athlophoros)
N 5. before BERENICE, the Well-Doing QUEEN ;
and
AREIA, the daughter of DIOGENES, was the
bearer of the basket (canephoros) before
ARSINOE, the Brother-Lover ; and
N6_
EIRENE, the daughter of PTOLEMY,
was
priestess of ARSINOE, the Father-Lover.
(THE ASSEMBLING OF THE PRIESTHOODS
ALL EGyptT AT MEMPHIS]
OF
On this day DECREE: The directors of the
services in the temples (high priests ?),
Ν 7 [and] the ministers of the gods (prophets 9),
[and] the priests who presided over the
Mysteries of the gods, [and] the priests who
cleanse and who go into the holy place to
array the gods in their [festal] apparel, [and]
the scribes who copy the books of the gods,
and the sages of the College of the House of
Life, and
Ν 8 the other priests who came from the Two
Regions of the South and the North to WHITE
WALL (1.6. MEMPHIS) for the festival whereat
his Majesty, the King of the South and of the
North, the Lord of the Two Lands, PTOLEMyY,
the everliving, the beloved of Prau, the god
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
107
who appeareth, the lord of benefits, received
the kingdom from his father.
the sanctuary of the
N 9 _ BALANCE
OF THE
Two
They went into
LANDs,! and behold
they spake, [saying,] :—
[SUMMARY
OF THE BENEFITS CONFERRED
EGypT BY PTOLEMY V]
ON
Now the King of the South and the North,
the heir of the two Father-Loving Gods, the
chosen of PtAu, Usr-KA-RA, the living image
of AMEN, the son of RA, ProLemy, the ever-
living, the beloved of PTau, the god who
appeareth, the lord of benefits, the son of the
King of the South and of the North, ProLemy,
and the Queen, the Lady of the Two Lands,
ARSINOE, the two Father-Loving Gods, hath
done many (or, great) and good deeds of all
kinds for
N 10
the Horus Lands, and for those who dwell
in them, and for every person who is under his
beneficent rule, in every possible manner—he
is like a god, the son of two gods, who hath
been born upon earth by a goddess, being the
similitude of Horus,
the son of Isis, the son
of OsiRIS, who avenged his father OstRIs—
1 A name of Memphis, which marked the place where
Lower Egypt ended on the South, and Upper Egypt ended
on the North.
108
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
N11
Behold, His Majesty possesseth the heart
of a beneficent (or, perfect) god towards the
gods—he hath given large amounts of silver
(1.6. money), and great quantities of grain, to
the temples of Ecypt.
[And] he hath given
very many precious gifts in order to promote
peace and good order in Ta-MER-T, and to
establish (or, endow) the sanctuaries of the
South and the North.
[THE GIFTS OF PTOLEMY
V TO HIS TROOPS]
His Majesty gave gifts to the soldiers who
were
N 12
under
his august
authority,
to every man according to his rank.
[PTOLEMY
V REDUCES SOME TAXES
ABOLISHES OTHERS]
AND
[As concerning] the taxes on the people
throughout Ecypr, and the dues from the
nobles which remained [unpaid], those which
were
due
to him
he diminished,
and
others
he abolished altogether, so that both the
soldiers and the civilians might be comfortable
during the period in which he was the one
sovereign Lord.
[PTOLEMY
V REMITS
ARREARS
OF TAXATION]
N13
The arrears of taxes which were due from
the people, and also from all the inhabitants
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
109
of Bag-T (EGypT), who lived under his beneficent rule (or, authority) in every part of the
country, he remitted entirely; the amount
remitted was a vast sum, and it is impossible
to say how great it was.
N 14 Those who had been arrested and had been
thrown into prison, and every person therein
who had been detained there for crimes committed a long time ago, he showed compassion
upon.
[PTOLEMY
V CONFIRMS
THE
THE
REVENUES
OF
TEMPLES]
His Majesty promulgated a DECREE, saying :—
“As concerning the sacred gifts (1.6. offerings) made to the gods, and the [amounts of]
the silver and the grain which are given to the
temples annually, and the-possessions of all
kinds of the gods in the vineyards and in the
plantations (or, gardens)
N 15 of the nome, and all the properties which
were in their possession under the Majesty of
his august father, shall continue to belong to
theres
And he further commanded, [saying] :—
“The contributions made by the hands of
thes priestss tos thee eic-asnallanot; exceeds in
amount that which they were [in the habit of]
contributing up to the first year of [the reign
of] the Majesty of his august father.”
110
THE
ROSETTA
“SIONE
[PTOLEMY V RELEASES THE PRIESTHOOD FROM
TAXATION
AND
FROM
THEIR
ANNUAL
JOURNEY TO ALEXANDRIA, AND ABOLISHES THE PRESS GANG, AND REMITS TWOTHIRDS OF THE TAX ON BYSSUS]
N 16 Moreover, His Majesty released the orders
of priests who minister at prescribed hours in
the temples from the journeys which they
made to the WALL OF ALEXANDER
(7.4.
ALEXANDRIA) at a certain period of the year.
{And] His Majesty commanded, [saying] :-—
‘“ Behold, men who are employed on ships shall
not be seized [by press gangs ?].”’
[And] His Majesty remitted two-thirds of
the pieces of byssus which
N 17 were made in the temples for the king’s
house.
[PTOLEMY V RESTORES THE PEACE
PROSPERITY OF EGyPpT]
AND
Likewise every thing which had been in a
state of disorder for a long time past, His
Majesty restored them to the excellent condition in which they had formerly been. He
was exceedingly careful to ensure that everything which it had been customary to do
N 18 _ for the gods should be performed in the most
exact and best possible manner.
And moreover, he treated the people with the strictest
justice, even as did THOTH the Great Great.
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
111
[PTOLEMY V PROCLAIMS A GENERAL AMNESTY]
He commanded also concerning certain men
who came back among the warriors, and [concerning] the remainder who were on another
road (Ὁ) during the revolt which took place in
Egypt, that they should go back to their own
places," and should remain in possession of
their own property.
[PTOLEMY V TAKES STEPS TO PROTECT
EGYPT AGAINST INVADERS]
[And] His Majesty took care to despatch
infantry, and cavalry, and ships to repulse
those who came
N19
to attack Ecypt from the sea-coast (?) as
well as from the GREAT GREEN SEA (1.6. the
Mediterranean), and he gave large sums of
silver and vast quantities: of grain in order
that the Horus Lands and Ta-MER-T might be
maintained in a state of peace.
[PTOLEMY V BESIEGES LYCOPOLIS]
His Majesty marched against the town
of
Shekam, which the enemy had fortified with
works (1.6. defences) of every kind, and in τί
were collected many weapons and everything
necessary for fighting. He (1.6. the King)
surrounded the aforesaid town with walls, and
1 The words in italics are added from the Demotic version (1. 11.)
112
he made
TAD
ROSE TAs SiON:
dams
outside
of them
because
the'
enemy who were inside it,
N 20 because they had committed many great
atrocities in Bag-T (EGypT) [and] they had
transgressed the way beloved of His Majesty
and the ordinances of the gods.* He (7.6. the
king) blocked
N 21.
all the canals which flowed into this city,
the like of which had never been done by any
of the King’s ancestors.*
He expended a very
large amount of money in effecting these
works.
His Majesty stationed his infantry,
and [his] cavalry, at the mouths of these canals
to keep guard over them, and to strengthen
them (1.6. the dams), because the inundations
of the waters [of the Nile] which took place in the
eighth year [of the] King’s reign were very
extensive, and the waters of the aforesaid canals
flooded many low-lying lands,* and were very
deep. His Majesty took this town by assault (?)
in a very short time.
1 The words in italics are supplied from the Demotic
version (ll. 14 and 15).
2 There is no equivalent in the Greek for the passage
beginning aes
* There
Ἔ and ending © dial
is no equivalent
beginning ὯΝ and ending
in the
es
4“ The words in italics are added
(ll. 12 and 13).
Greek
for the passage
ite
from the Demotic version
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
113
N 22 He crushed those of the enemy who were
brought out from the interior of the town,
[and] he made a great massacre of them, even
like unto the massacre which RA, and Horus,
the son of Isis, made of their enemies in that
same place aforetime (?).
[PTOLEMY
V
PUNISHES
THE
LEADERS
OF
THE REBELLION
AGAINST HIS FATHER
PTOLEMY IV PHILOPATOR]
R11 _ Behold,’ the enemy had gathered together
the soldiers, and they were at their head, and
they led astray [the people] in the [other]
nomes, and looted the Horus Lands (7.6. the
temples and their estates). They transgressed
the way of His Majesty and his august father.
The gods bestowed victory upon him, and
some of them were brought into ANEB HETCH-T
(7.6. WHITE WALL or, MEMPHIS)
N23
at the time
festival whereat
from
his
father.
of the celebration of the
he received the kingdom
He
slaughtered
setting them up upon wood
crucified or impaled them).
[PTOLEMY
V REMITS
THE ARREARS
AND
CONTRIBUTIONS
FROM
THE
DUE
them
by
(7.e. he either
OF TAXES
TO THE
KING
TEMPLES]
His Majesty remitted the arrears of taxes
which were due to him from the temples up
1 The Rosetta text begins with the sign [I< :
H
114
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
to the ninth year of [his reign]—very many
large quantities of silver, and masses of grain,
R2
and likewise the cloth of byssus which the
temples were obliged to give to the King’s
house,
and
the
balance (?), which
was
fixed
(or, determined) upon for the quantity of the
cloth which they, up to this day had already
delivered.
And as concerning the grain, he
remitted the five bushels' which were levied
on the avura® in the field of the gods, and likewise the measure
N 25 of wine which was [levied on the avura] in
the vineyard lands [of the gods].
[THE
ENDOWMENTS OF APIS, MNEVIS, AND
THE OTHER SACRED ANIMALS, MADE BY
PTOLEMY V]
He provided great endowments for APpIs®
[and] MNeEvis,‘ and
ΗΕ 3. all the [other] sacred animals, such endowments being larger than those which his
ancestors had made ; his heart occupied itself
1 The Greek has ἀρτάβη (a word derived from the Persians)
= I medimnus + 3 choenices. The Egyptians borrowed the
word and it appears in Coptic under the forms Ep Tos, pTOB,
pTas, etc.; it is the zvdab of the Arabs, and is in common
use throughout the East to-day.
2 Roughly ‘‘acre.”’
® The sacred bull of Memphis.
4 The sacred bull of Heliopolis.
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
115
with plans (or, schemes for their welfare) at
every moment. He provided everything which
[their servants] required
N26
for the embalmment of their bodies in
great abundance and in an honourable fashion.
He brought [also] the things which had to be
provided in their temples for the celebration
of the great festival, and made to be taken
there animals to be slaughtered there for the
burnt offerings, and the libations which were
to be poured out, and everything which was
necessary for the performance of the customary
rites. Moreover, the gifts of honour which
had [to be brought] in the temples, and all the
great things of Egypt, His Majesty [provided]
according to what was laid down in the regulations.
R4
He gave gold, and silver, and grain in very
large quantities, and all things, according to
their
number,
for
the
house
wherein
the
Livinc Apis dwelt, and His Majesty decorated
anew with handsome work, which was exceedingly beautiful, and he made
the LIvING
Horus
to appear therein.
[THE DEVOTION
OF PTOLEMY
V TO THE
SERVICE OF THE GODS AND HIS REWARD]
He set up (?) in new [work] the temples, and
shrines,
and
altars
of the gods,
and
he per-
mutted the other temples to resume their [former]
H 2
116
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
customs.' Behold, His Majesty hath the heart
of a well-doing god towards the gods and he
concerneth himself with the . . . of the beautiful temples
R 5. so that they may renew during his [life-]
time [his rule as] the Lord One (or one overlordship). As a reward for these things the
gods and the goddesses have given unto him
victory, and might, and life, and strength, and
health, and every good things of every kind
whatsoever and his great position is firmly
established upon him and upon his children
for ever.
[THE
PRIESTS
DECIDE
HONOURS
PAID TO
HIS ANCESTORS]
TO AUGMENT
PTOLEMY
V
THE
AND
. WITH
FORTUNATE
HAPPENING! (1.6. may
good luck attend this).
It hath entered into the heart of the priests
of all the temples of the South (UPPER EcyPt)
and the North (ἘΞ
Ecypt) the strong
words (7.6. honours) of the King of the South
and of the North, PToLemy, the everliving,
the beloved of Pras, the god who appeareth
(Epiphanes), the lord of benefit, in the Horus
Lands to multiply; and the honours which
1 The
words
in italics
are
supplied
version, ti-f ar ke-t he-t paiu gai.
from
the Demotic
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
17
belong to the two Father-Loving Gods (PHILoPATORES) who begot him; and those which
belong to the two Well-Doing Gods (EvERGETAI) who begot those who begot him ;
R6 and those of the two Brother Gods (ADELPHOI) who caused to come into being those who
made
Gods
them; and those of the two Saviour
(SOTERES), the fathers of those who
begot them.
[THE PRIESTS DECIDE TO SET UP STATUES OF
PTOLEMY V AND THE CHIEF LOCAL GOD
IN EACH OF THE TEMPLES OF EGYPT]
And there shall be set up a statue of the
King of the South and the North,
PToLEmy,
the everliving, the beloved of Pran, the god
who appeareth, the lord of benefactions,
its mame
shall be called ‘‘ ProLtEmMy,
and
the
Avenger of Baq-t,’’ whereof the interpretation
(or, meaning)
is, ‘‘ Ptolemy,
the Protector of
Kam-t (EcyptT),”’ and (2) a statue of the god
of the city, who shall be giving to him a royal
sword of victory, [And these shall be set up]
in every temple in UPPER and LOWER
EGYPT,
in the court of the temple to which the soldiers
{have access], in the work of the sculptors of
EGyer*
1.7.6. the statues shall be of purely native workmanship,
and not Greek.
118
R7_
THE
ROSETTA,
STONE
And the priests who have the right of entry
into the god-house (7.e. sanctuary) in every
temple shall perform rites of worship before
these statues three times daily, and they shall
set before them the implements of the cult (?),
and they shall perform with the greatest care
every prescribed ceremony which will gratify
their Kas (z.e. spirit doubles) in precisely the
same way as they are performed for the gods
of the Nomes on the festivals which are
celebrated at the beginning of the seasons of
the year, and on the days of festival, and on
the aforesaid days.
[A WOODEN STATUE OF PTOLEMY V SHALL
SET UP IN A SHRINE OF GOLD]
BE
And there shall be fashioned a splendid
‘statue of the King of the South and the
North, ProLtemy, the god who appeareth, the
lord of benefits, the son of the King of the
South
and
the
North,
ProLEemMy,
and
the
Queen, the Lady of the Two Lands, ARSINO#,
R8
the two Father-Loving Gods,
and a magnificent [portable] shrine [made]
of silver-gold, and inlaid with real precious
stones of every kind, for every temple of the
aforementioned regions, and they shall be set
in the holy place, side by side with the shrines
of the gods of the Nomes.
Now therefore
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
119
when the great festivals are celebrated, and the
god in his august shrine cometh forth from
his chamber (?), the holy shrine of the god
who appeareth, the lord of benefits, shall make
its appearance along with them.
[DESCRIPTION
OF THE
SHRINE]
In order to enable the people to recognize
this shrine from to-day and for enti periods
of years (1.6. endless time), ten crowns of His
Majesty, with an uraeus in the front of each
one of them,
R9
as it is right and proper for every crown,
shall be placed on this shrine, instead of the
two uraei which are usually placed upon
shrines,
with
the
double
crown
a) in
the
middle of them, because His Majesty shone
therein in the House or Prau after he had
performed every ceremony in connection with
the introduction of the King into the House of
the God when he received his great Office (or
Rank). And there shall be placed on the
upper side of the rectangle (?) which is on
the outside of these crowns, [and] opposite
to
the double
crown
a cluster
of
rushes
ἵ
and a cluster of papyrus y. A vulture upon
a basket, with a cluster of reeds Ὁ under her
shall be
Mi
120
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
R10
atthe right corner (or, angle) of this shrine,
N27
and
an
uraeus,
likewise
on
ἃ
basket,
with a cluster of papyrus under her Ὁ shall
be on the left corner.
The interpretation
(or, meaning) of this is ‘The Lords of
the Two Crowns illumine the Two Lands”
(1.6. all Egypt).
[FESTIVALS ARE TO BE CELEBRATED
BIRTHDAY OF PTOLEMY V, AND
DAY OF HIS ACCESSION
IN EACH MONTH]
TO THE
ON
ON
THE
THE
THRONE
Inasmuch as the last (1.6. the 30th) day of
the fourth month of the season Shemu,?
N 28 the birthday of the beautiful and everliving god, was established as a festival and a
day of rejoicing in the Horus Lands (1.6. on
the temple estates) in former times, and
also the seventeenth day of the second month
of the season AKHET,’ the day whereon was
performed for him the ceremony of the
coronation of the King, when he received the
kingdom from his father—now behold, the
beginning (or, source) of all the many great
1 The Meséré, uecwpu of the Copts.
* The Paophi, or naane of the Copts.
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
and beneficial things which
on these lands enjoy, is
121
those who dwell
Ril
the birthday of the great and everliving
god, and the receiving by him.
N 29 of the kingdom—these days (viz.), the
17th day and the 30th day of every month
shall be observed as festivals in all the
temples of EGypt, and a burnt offering
shall be offered up, and a drink offering
(or, lbation) shall be poured
out, and
everything which it is right and _ proper
to do at festivals shall be done on these
days every month.
Everything
which is
done on these festivals shall be carried on
for [the benefit of] all those who perform
their service (or, worship) in the house of
the god.
[A
FIVE-DAY
FESTIVAL
AT THE
BEGINNING
OF THE
MONTH
OF THOTH
SHALL
BE
CELEBRATED ANNUALLY IN HONOUR
OF
PTOLEMY
There
V]
shall be celebrated
a festival, and a
day of rejoicing [observed] in the temples of
R12
Egypt, all of them, [in honour] of the King
of the South and North, PToLemy,
living, the beloved of Prau, the
the evergod who
appeareth, the lord of benefits, each year, at
122
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
the beginning of the first month of the season
AKHET, and lasting from the first to the fifth
day of the same, [during] which days the
people shall [wear] garlands on their heads.
The altars shall be provided with offerings
and libations shall be poured out, and everything shall be done which it is right and
proper to do [at festivals].
[THE PRIESTS OF PTOLEMY V SHALL
AN ADDITIONAL TITLE]
ASSUME
The priests of all the above-mentioned
temples shall be called “‘ priest (or, minister)
of the god who appeareth, the lord of benefits,”
in addition to their usual titles as priests. They
shall inscribe
R13
it upon their official documents, and the
title “ priest of the god who appeareth, the
lord of benefits,” shall be engraved on the
rings which they wear on their hands.
[PRIVATE PERSONS SHALL BE ALLOWED TO
PAY THESE HONOURS TO PTOLEMY V]
Now
behold,
it is in the
hands
of those
people who are wishful to do so to set up a
copy of this shrine of “ the god who appeareth,
the lord of benefits,’ and to place it in their
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
123
houses.
And they shall celebrate these festivals and days of rejoicing every month and
every year, so that it may be known that the
dwellers in Ta-MER-T (EGypt) glorify
R14
the “god who appeareth, the lord
benefits,’ as it is meet and right to do.
[THIs DECREE
SHALL
of
BE PUBLISHED]
This Decree shall be engraved upon a tablet
of hard stone, in the writing of the words of
the god
(ὦ, hieroglyphs), [and] in the
writing of books (͵.6. demotic), [and[ in the
writing of the Haui-nebu (z.e. Greeks). And
the tablet shall be set up in the sanctuaries,
in each of the temples mentioned above, [of
the] first, second [and] third [class], by the
side of the statue of the King of the South and
North,
ProLtemy,
the everliving,
the beloved
of Pray, the god who appeareth, the lord of
benefits.
Characteristic portraits of Ptolemy V, and
his father Ptolemy IV Philopator, and _ his
grandfather Ptolemy III, Euergetes I, and
their principal wives will be found on Plates
XII and XIII.
Portraits of the founder of
the Ptolemaic Dynasty, Ptolemy I Soter, and
Ptolemy IX are also there given.
124
THE
III.—THE
ROSETTA
HIEROGLYPHIC
DECREE
ATION
WITH
AND
TRANSLATION
INTER-LINEAR
©
en
month
12
Clty
sesu IV
day 4,
9,{month] Xandikos,
ge ee he!
abt
THE
TRANSLITER-
OF THE DECREE]
2
Ni
Al omy 4
ake thw eet
renp-t IX
Ksntks
Year
OF
TRANSLATION
[THE DATING
Nt
STONE
amin
ww
SA
enti
ee
ar
which
maketh
oo
Ee
a
eS
Ta- ae
er-t
ἀδὲ 1]
Per-t
of the dwellers in Ta-Mer (Egypt) { month two of
the season Pert,
i
intie ads Salt MRRartsySe
δ
ΧΙ
kher
hem
day
18,
under
the Majesty
en
Her-Ra (Ὁ)
of the Horus-Ra
ae ff) hea
(Ὁ
pas
Ny Nees
|
δῆ}:
Aunnu
kha
em
her
as-t
the Youth,
rising
like
mw
=nesu
ΕΞ
a king upon the throne of
1 The Nabayrah Stele has here
τὴ | τ 6 ἡ IN Ql
<=>
[antl
una Year 23, [month] Kerpiais, day 24.
* The Nabayrah Stele has Ζξϑ ΞΞ 0 11, Fourth month of
a)
:
Pert, day 24.
HIEROGLYPHIC
ee
Qe
TRANSLATION
125
δὼ
Se
DJA.
ἜΘ.
ἘΞΞΞΞΞ
x
,
teb-f
Nebta
ur
pehts
his father, Jflord of the Vulture crown | mighty one of strength,
and of the Uraeus
crown,
ον
smen
Τα
s-nefer
Ta-Mer-t
stablisher of the Two
benefactor of
Lands, (1.6. of Egypt)
Ta-Mer (t.e. of Egypt),
Ni yh
ee:|
menkh
~
<>
ab
benevolent
of
kher
heart
πὸ
towards
ae
S$
(om)
neteru
the
Fler Nub-ti
gods,
the
Horus,
teh se
uatcht ankh en
hamemu
neb
heb
_ making —
of men and women, lord of the Set-festivals
vigorous the life
att
Ptah-Tenn
Ptah-Ten
ἃ ANH ἢ
ma
like,
att
sovereign
ἐᾷ
Ra ma
Ra _ like,
(= Sette UP
{atui-netr) ὁaua
merur
nesu-bat
King of the South
and North,
Ae BH
en Ptah setep { Usr- ἃ {Amen \ankh
Κα- Κα! \Sekhem!
flesh and blood of
the Father-loving
( of Ptah
the chosen
gods, (Philopatores),)
one,
Usr-Ka-RA,! of Amen the
living image,
1 UsRKARA is the Nesu-bat name of Ptolemy V.
126
THE
ROSE TDTAY SLONE
ai=)
2 fee
sa Ra
247
Son of Ra,
Ptulmis
Ptolemy,
Li
ankh djet
...
rerlivi
the everliving
el
=
ent
Ι
TES
Ptah-mer
f Ptah
ἄς
tl
neter
pert
neb
neferu
the god appearing (Epiphanes) lord of benefactions,
Ne
ee
CeeΠῚ
of
Ptulmis
Ptolemy
son
Cle |
Pay
-«-ο--
hena
and
ee
lan
Arsna
neterut atut merut
uab
en
Arsinoé
rsinoé
Father-gods
{of the ler
8
\
i
priest
of
ee
Sars
Alksantrs
teal
hena
Alexander
neterui netchui
he[na]
and the two gods who deliver,
{
(Soteres),
ug)
a
ill
neterur senut
hena
neterut menkhur
and the two gods [who
are] brothers, (Adelphoi),
and
the two Well-doing gods,
(Euergetai),
1 The Nabayrah Stele has Aἢwe ὩΣτ
᾿
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
ἷaoe
|a
ἷ==)
᾿
SS
hena
neteruiatut
merut
hena
neter
pert
and
ἐς two Sacre n
gods, (Philopatores)
and
NAA
N4
127
AN
|
Eee |
ἰ
[ΤΠ
ARS Sel
neferu
Atatus
the lord of benefits,
Aiatus
ENN
1
δὰ
the ες of]
5) «ὖν-.
Aiatus
Aiatus
neb
(the god who
appeareth,
appearet, ἢ
ae
Pera
sa-tt
Pyrrha,
daughter of
ἘΣ
Philinus
the ae of
1 The Nabayrah Stele has the name of the priest of the
23rd year ‘‘ Ptolemy, the [son of] Pyrrhides,”’
= | — {hl
ῃ
ie τοῦ
2a
τ;
=s
Ptulmis
Perrits
The name in brackets is τῆλ by Sethe as the original
of ’Acrov τοῦ ᾿Αέτου. Other suggestions of his follow.
2The
Nabayrah
Telemachus,”
Stele
has
‘‘Demetria,
daughter
— = Net -& τ"
Tem
trr
sa-tt
Talimkus
of
128
THE
ROSETTA
N 5A
wn OE5
STONE
(Se Yor
shep
en
genu
em-bah
Bermiga-t
Sthe prize
of
victory
before
Berenice
Ὶ
|
(1.6. Athlophoros)
ἦΝ
ὃ
YS IQAUWN ἢ οὖ
menkh-t
the { ox Ἐν
au
Ana-t
ἦς being
Areia
[-Ξ ἢ ἢ α ye
eo.
SS
Tiagns
far
Diogenes,
ἢἢ
(=
tennu
embah
the bearer of the basket
(See
{
(KKanephoros)
eae-
Verbal
Pi
Arsinoé,
| before
}
sen meri
τ" brother lover.
πω
ON
aU
being
1 The Nabayrah
sa-tt
the daughter of
SS
Hirna-t
Eirene,
Stele has
sa-tt
daughter of
᾿
ENS if
>
DBE (oral =p, Bl aR aioe.
Arsna
Qstmus
daughter of Cadmus.”
* Nabayrah Stele, MSi = Ὁ ΓΝ
sa-tt
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
ΕΟ
Ptulmis
en
Ptolemy
a
uab-t
Bes
NS
en
Arsna-t
priestess of
Ww Isatf-s
129
Arsinoé,
k
SS
ta
mere
the
lover of her father,
[THE ASSEMBLING OF THE PRIESTHOODS
ALL EGypT AT MEMPHIS]
Peloo inst (>
hru
day
pen — skhaus
this
DECREE
Ar bbe
mer
shenu
the directors of services (?)
eae
1s
Fa SP
Ἵ
hem neteru
heru sesheta
neter
4] th
het
and those over
eee
ie hidden se
uabu
aquu
the priests who go
er
f tl
ον
Nila. = Ja
dof
MNT,
(7.6. the shrine)
em
σἴϊ
-t-sen
in
their
apparel,
ean
TOR
sahu
ir ae
madjaiu neter
and the scribes of the
books of the gods,
sie
—?
ἢ
|
d
Sasa
bu _ tcheser
smer
into the place holy \ [to] robe the gods
i) =e ie
neteru
OF
πε.
|
ha
athiu
per-ankh
and the sages of the House of Life,
NAAN
=p
hena
and
f
130
THE
neQ
ROSETTA
7G
na
kt
the other
uabu
priests
UMS
TA
Res-t
Meh-t
{ the South
{and] the North
STONE
2
® Ue
2
coming
ne ie two regions of
aterti-t
τ
au
to
pattem
oy
Aneb-hedj
{ White Wall \
em
heb
en
on the festival of
(1.6. Memphis)
sO 1M NR ee
ἃ 1ἡ Ἀὦ
seshep
nesuit
em
tef-f
receiving kingship from his father
an
hem WNesu-bat
J Majesty, the King of the
ἘΞΞΣ
Bice
neb
tau
South and North,
lord of the Two Lands (7.e. Egypt),
Ptulmis
ankh
Ptolemy,
the everliving,
= it iy
SS
djet
[tale
lee)
a
schedj
sanctuary
μ᾿,
of
= men
of Ptah beloved,
Cea
neler
pert
neb
neferu
the god appearing, \ lord of benefactions
(Epiphanes),
Ptah
bis
ee
ab-sen
er
— they went into
HIEROGLYPHIC
Nom
TRANSLATION
IMS
131
=A
Makha-t Taui
assu
ka-sen
i
{Bal
ene
ef thay [and] behold (?) they spake [saying]
:es
(7.6. Mesphin |
[SUMMARY
OF THE BENEFITS CONFERRED
Eaypt By PTroLemy V]
οὗν:Ξ
&,'
“εν
ΟΝ
em
un
nesu-bat
ents
Since
ON
the King of the South and the North
Colol = Ss chem TUBKYH)
Neterui atut merui atu aau f en-Ptahsetep
flesh and bone of the
chosen
Father-loving gods, ᾿ { Ptah,
of
Usr-Ka-Ra Amensekhem ankh
Usr-Ka-RA,
of
\ bethe vin
image
2
GAZW
fF | TE
a
sa Ra
Ptulmis
ankh
son of Ra,
Ptolemy,
everliving,
i
neter
pert
djet,
1h) US sf
ποῦ
nefert
the god
lord of
appearing,
benefactions,
Ptah-mert
of Ptah beloved,
Tus
nesu bat
son re
the King of the
South and the North,
1 After = the Nabayrah Stele adds ἧς J ale =.
132
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
Cee
Piulnus
NaS
©
|
Arsna
neb-t
Si -.
ὩΣ
merur
her
art
sea two ον
hath
done
loving gods,
I aN
Ι
Ss
neferit
wuru
ae
khe-t
things
taut
neterur itut
Arsinoé,
Se
heq-t
and the Queen, lady of the Two Lands,
Ym
:
eee
hena
Ptolemy,
QE
Sis ee
neb-t
|
|
em
of all kinds gracious, very many in
NylOe
A poe
ΩΣ
᾿
tor
=
amtu-sen
nebu
taru (ἢ
the Horus Lands (ἰ.6.
aan
{for] the dwellers in
the divine estates),
them all,
es
her
ει
sa
neb
and person every
ih a
——
menkh-t
er
un
tN ico
khent
[who] was
under
ws
τς MW
0
INN
@
beneficent,
em
ΕἼ
em
all of them,
he being
like
BY τὴ 11
EX
ae)
re
ἮΝ
|
unen-f
<<
his rule
ARRAN
au-sen
Sow
daui-f
Ὁ
γιοίογμῖ ()
[11
erfa
en
neter-t
gods
2,
gift
of
a goddess
—neter
80
a god, sonof
LS
ta
to the earth
(i.e. world),
HIEROGLYPHIC
Um =
febed
s-tut
in
the semblance of
li ὦ Pig
ihe
As-t
sa
Asar
Isis,
sonof
Osiris,
||
133
lk SS
em
εἰ
cae
17 ++
Md
a
anedj
son of
<o>
teb-f
Asay
the avenger of his father Osiris ;
mt ἘΝ
ΕΝ
5657,
hem-f
em
ab
en
behold
— His Majesty
with
the heart
of
f§
RR
neter menkh
a beneficent god
KURE
Uru
uahau
ee
EY
op:
erta-nef
he gave
silver
sher
neteru
towards the gods,
Sse
a
TRANSLATION
Soy VU’ bbb
ἘΣ
em
Hie great ae
ἄς
very much
[and] grain
hedj
erpiu (9)
nu oe t
to the sanctuaries of Egypt,
ise Wit pes Soe
ee
ee
|
erta-nef
shepsu
he gave
precious objects
=
er
[and] for the
aunt
ΝΠ
Uru
ἀπ
Ta-Mer-t (1.6. Egypt)
Qebhut (Ὁ)
stablishing of the sanctuaries
of the South and
οῷ
Ta-Mer-t
very many for the quieting of
ee
s-tet
gerh
the North;
134
THE
ROSETTA
(THE GIFTS OF PToLeEMy
STONE
V TO HIS TROOPS]
Se NOYOA ee TY
erta-f
aft
πές
oho
N2%
en mashau(?)
ift
to
i‘
2
ἣ
ur-t
unen
thesoldiers
khent
aau-t-
{who were under
his authority
181%
ma
get-sen
august according to their ranks ;
[PTOLEMY
V REDUCES SOME TAXES
ABOLISHES OTHERS]
be
Sa i
hetr
aru
τ
AND
aealie
ha
bak
én
at(t]
ie taxes of them (i.e. of
dues
of
the noble
the people) and
[= 6)
7
ell
ΞΞ ΕΞ
Bt
tt
aha
ΟΝ
Φ
which were
unsettled)
WWW
ee
——
unen
ani-f
kheb-nef
4
sis
—
1» 08
kher
from
Ta-mer-t
Ta-Mer-t
those that concerned him he diminished ;
1 Emendation by Sethe.
ἢ
ΕΠ}
am-sen
others of them
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
135
ele
AW
hae
pees! i ee
unen
oe
erta-nef
er
ta
ΠΣ
τα
4 ase " to the ground
ZS
oN
NIA
erta
unen
Sieg
NS
ἘΠ
So
em
en
V REMITS
Ν 13 Ἐς
met-neb-ua
of sole Kingship.
ARREARS
OF TAXATION]
Sy = 5. RI
gerhu
The ne,
aru
of them
of taxes
7| y Θ4e * Vs
nu Bagq-t
of Egypt,
the people
5.
ae
comfortable in his period
[PTOLEMY
Ι
uneniu
the soldiers
a te
aq-tu
+ Sa
menfitu
he made to be
ha
andon
un
7.7.2
hamemet
which lay on the people
xb
eeAnna ὦ
sa-neb
pet ee
..
ὩΣΙ
un
em khent
being under
τῷ § -- ἃ. SHGST
@
aaut-— menkh-t
is
rule
ede
er
-
iy)
@Gu-s
gracious, ἣ of
{ them (
y
GUNar aioe sen
᾿
᾿
:
:
in their entirety ;
fl
erta-sen
LS
hem-f
er
ta
laid them His Majesty on the
earth (1.6. he remitted them)
136
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
BS
ven
5 fo
mann
τὴ
em
ap-t
aa
an
rekh
an amount immense, not is known
tenu-sen
{how many
oeἘΣ
He pardoned
they were.
π᾿
seshep
those who had been
Ν 14 Ell 59 tO
aS
Seshep-iu
unen
_—her-t
ha
αἱ
sa-neb
arrested [and] who were in prison, and person every
SST
RAAAAA
τς τ tS
enen
ee
V CONFIRMS THE
TEMPLES]
par Ce
—,
ay
tee
em
art ver(?)
au
committed time long [ago}.
because (τς
[PTOLEMy
xs
=
——
=
ee
REVENUES
ἘΞΞΞΞ-
OF THE
με
Ala)
ΧΗ
od
λλλλλλ
utu
hem-t
em
ἀ7εΐ
ay
hetep-neteru en
Decreed His Majesty saying :—As concerneth the offetings
BAR esol
neteru
of
the
gods,
ας fect oe
hedj
Ἐπ
the
silver,
ΠΡ ἡ
hetut neter tep
the god-houses
venp-t
yearly,
nah
[and]
the
erta
grain,
given
er
to
τ
ong
ha
khet
the things
1}.€.
possessions)
neb-t
Wes all kinds
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
Pe
ee
τ
neteru
ah-t
nu
137
τ
arr
[for] the gods in the lands of
eas:
ἂν" vine [and] the east
i
districts
NLS Rea
(eos ©
oe
|
(aa
SS
nu
hesp
Paw
ha
of the nome,
oh
.-
neb
unen
NN
khet
and the properties of all kinds [which]
eee
eg
eh eee
—
11 <>
Rhert-sen
Ι
kher
hem
were their possessions
ΒΞ ΟΝ
wn
Teta
men-sen
sheps
er
erta
of his father august, shall be allowed
under the majesty
petty
ἘῸΝ
tef-f
eee
[
ἘΞΞΞΞ
AN
ΠῚ
kher-sen
them to remain their properties.
[PTOLEMY V RELEASES THE PRIESTHOOD FROM
TAXATION, AND FROM THEIR ANNUAL JOURNEY
TO ALEXANDRIA, ABOLISHES THE PRESS GANG,
AND REMITS TWO-THIRDS OF THE TAX ON
BYSSUS|
PS
utu-net
al i
as
er
[ὑππΞ πὶ ~_Oe
tem
erta
as
sc
meh-tu
0
COI!
tennut
He decreed:—Behold, shall not be made to be filled the....
1 Sethe
neteru em.
would
amend
J |S$ © Ss |iE tena-t aru
(ss SS
|
|
nu
138
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
=A
Si em\ hautKhas
==am
em
daut
uabu
er unen
erta
by the hands of the priests by more
(Nes Sa
nefrit
up
δας
er
to
wee
lean
Na
er
Moreover ἢ
es,
Se
au
ἜΝ ee he-t-neteyr
priests of the oases
13
-
STE
7
given formerly
venp-t I
hem
tef-f
sheps
year 1 of the Majesty of his father august.
S&S
ΞΞΞΞΞΞ
than was
en = “hem-f
His Majesty
chal ip
I
em
a from
Ann
utuit
dari-sen
the journeys
Rie
courses in the temple
iy BX #SἘΠῚ
au
to
pa
the
ποῦ
Wall
(oma
ties
eu! they
made
ες:
δ
ara
en
οἵ
Argsanirs
Alexander (1.6. Alexandria)
at the me
en venp-t
periods of the year.
ἰδ
IN Ξε
ic
.«--ἢ
TI]:
ΣΝ
a
as
tem
erta
kep-
tu
utu-enf
ey
He decreed :—Behold, not is permitted
ah
to be pressed
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
139
——
a
4
= il ΠῚ#
nu
khemtt
ter
men of the sailors
Nel
πῇ
REO
The cloths
ἘΞΞ
We ᾿ on
Se)
ΞΞ
| re
em
peg
art
67
per nesu
of byssus
made _ for
the King’s house
eS
Y lH
KR bob tee
gesu peru
[eva)
uaut
en
hem-f
remitted
His
Majesty
AND
PROS-
aha-n-
in the temples.
two-thirds of them.
[PTOLEMY
V RESTORES THE PEACE
PERITY OF EGYPT]
[15]
ΞΞ 55.-΄ Ὁ
Wn
matet
aru
Likewise
khet
neb
thing
ever
δ
un
= ao!
PKS
em
γογη
es
tata-set
foratime
long
placed them
PN
senh-tu
disorder (?)
which]
y {oy been
= =O [AMM P=
em
Nw
ee
7re οἱ
nefer
ear Majesty as they were of
hem-f
er
tep-sen
old, in good state.
140
THE
ROSETTA
Γ᾿
unen-f
her
Doe)
A
aa
He had care
Qo
STONE
ΤΕΣ
Ur
hoe
a
very,
art
to perform
Sy
os
khet
δῦ
thing
every
που
τον...
en
which was usually
vo llelilees
|
aru
em
meter
done according to the teaching
2 \\
SSN
ames
|
nu
neterh
ma
enti
er
of the gods, so that [it was performed]
aN
ae
tep
meter
a the best aaa,
possible.
[Scien
as
πεῖν ἀξ ἢ δ)
matet
erta
teh
A
ΞΞΞ
OS
aru
Likewise
|
[he] gave
WW
nefer
|
en
unniu
ma
J height of happiness
to men,
as
(ἰ.6. strict justice)
oe
ar
did
en
Tehutt
da aa
Thoth, the Great Great.
1 The words
PR iles.
in
brackets
are
added
by
Sethe
from
HIEROGLYPHIC
[PTOLEMY
TRANSLATION
V PROCLAIMS
A GENERAL
141
AMNESTY]
rei |
utu-nef
He decreed
ΞΞΞΞΞ
__behold
TA
=
On
aw
NN OA
el
470
erta
men
|
f\
Ἐς 5. ww
hkhet-sen
hkher-sen
to allow to remain their possessions under their own [hands].
[The engraver of the Nabayrah Stele has omitted a passage which corresponds to the Demotic :—hn-f-s an (r) tba
na nti auu r ai hnu na rmtu knkn arm pa sp rmt aar hpr
hr kt-h-t mi-t(?) [Sethe has mhru-t] n pa thth aar hpr (n)
Kmi τ ti-t [stau] st (r) naiu maau (ll. 1r and 12).
His
Majesty decreed ‘‘ concerning certain men who came back
among the warriors, and [concerning] the remainder who
were on another road(?) during the revolt which took
place in Egypt, that they should go back to their own
places,” and should remain in possession of their own
property. ]
[PTOLEMY
V TAKES STEPS TO PROTECT
AGAINST INVADERS]
Bae. Tats
HE ei Waste be
rit-n ef
He took care
EGYPT
as
her
erta
msha
behold
to
make
to go
στ:
|
shesu
semsemu
kebnu
infantry, and
cavalry,
and ships
142
THE
ἊΝ
ROSETTA
STONE
ia
Be il
en
aaiu
eee
to drive back (or, against)
No
those who came
tegen
|
a
ΕΣ 4
ar
hw
her
to fight against
δ
ee
AA
U
ae
oS
fa
7:
from the Great ee
(1.6. Mediterranean
A
x)
tit
mitet
kam-t
em
Egypt from the sea coast as well as
He
hed.
gave
ee
ine
μαᾷ
uru
and grain [in] —
quantities
SPSS
οι
Pat
πὶ
er
1S
eee iP
sen
s-gerh
to them to ae quiet
ἽΝ
ALGALEALY
+
He
tatu
the Tees Lands
her
and
aerial
1 > a
Ta-mer-t
{ ‘Ta-Mer-t \
(t.e. Egypt).
[PTOLEMY V BESIEGES
LYCOPOLIS]
BRABANT
au
K beni
against Khenti
hem-f
Marched His Majesty
(Ini Ss ἘΞ
sebau
the enemies
un
em
[who] were
canes
|
khent-s
inside it.
ς
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
143
[The engraver of the Nabayrah Stele has omitted the
passage which corresponds to the Demotic:—r ta rsat n
Shkam [r un] nau anb (n) t-t na sbau hr ka-t nb run
stbh ashai sbti nb (n) pais hn arb-f ta rsat (n) rn-s n sbt
un (n) pais bnr (r) tba na (ll. 12 and 13). His Majesty
marched ‘‘against the town of Shekam, which the enemy
had fortified with works (1.6. defences) of every kind, and
in it were
[collected] many weapons, and everything
necessary for fighting.
He (the King) surrounded the
aforesaid town with walls and made dams outside of them,
because] the’’ enemy who were inside it, etc.]
Ν
20
ja
ea
<>
oe
Hee
st
Wala
|
ari-sen
ἐεῤ
\\
djerenti
because
SSRs @ [Ja
em
Βαρ-ί
very many in Egypt.
πὶ
nu
ha
of His Majesty
and
1
(δ ἱ
|
khebsu
δ,
Ἐν
|ἢ
OP ahs
teh-sen
meten
mer
They had transgressed the way beloved
τς
— hem-f
<a
Ι
~
they had committed the greatest atrocities
—
Uru
Q Τ
Ξε an lol
sekher
nu
neteru
the ordinances of the gods.
awww
-
ten-nef
He blocked up
1 There is no
Ι
|
|
equivalent in the Greek text for the words
tip ee Casa
144
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
Naor Soy
>
Fe uie
atyu
neb
enti
ία
er
canal every which flowed into
ἘΠῚ
ΤῊ
ΠΕ]:
τ
then
An
ari
INNA
this;
a
resit
town
AN
matet
ἀπ
|
nesiu
πὶ
|
(FL
tep-au
never had done the like the King’s predecessors [his].
eat rk
erta-nef
hedj 2)
He spent moneys
anebid
Seat ih
ash-sen
ei many as eae
ma
er
sen
on their account.
necessary
VY 1 Suhv— [Ma
|
erta
an
hem-f
Placed
His
Majesty
SS
<>
remt-retiu (P)-f
semsemu
his infantry [and] cavalry
la
Cw!
ie
a
πὴie
aturu
apen
er
541-567,
at the mouth{s] of
canals
these
ἰὸ
watch them
=
tid
er
s-udja-sen
to
keep them in a strong state,
|
er
re
λλλλλλ
|
en
«ΞΞΞ
ww
ΔΊ]
|
vat
1 There is no equivalent in the Greek text for the words
pa
ous)
Br
ie
hate
tnt’
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
145
[The engraver of the Nabayrah Stele has omitted a passage corresponding to the Demotic :—(r) tba na mhu n pa mu
r un nau alu ἢ ha-t sp 8-t r na iaru ἢ rnu na nti ti-t shm
mu ratn ashai (ll. 14 and 15), ‘‘ because of the inundations
of the water (1.6. the river Nile) which took place in the
8th year were great, and the waters of the aforesaid canals
flooded many very low-lying fields ”’ (?).]
TS
EE ire)
medj-tu
em-shes
{and were] deep
-----τ--
maat
ἤδη
very.
en
WOES Co Bl
N 22
Ee)
hem-f
Captured
His Majesty
τ
λλλλλλ
vesit
then
maa
em
[djka ?]
town
this
....
with
strength
O
1
xm
=
' !
Uru
Mn
Ὁ J Ry ς
Rheb-nef
δ
an
great,
he conquered [it].
[Those] brought in
" “το
sebau
unu
ἜΝ among the enemy
τ τὺ
em
khents
J who Ba in a
interior,
ani-nef-sen
he made them [of]
KR Elie le— $a
an
amassacre
aa-t matet
great
ari
as did
en
+
Shu
Καὶ
ha
Shu
Ra(?)
and Horus
K
Her
146
THE
ROSETTA
παὉ
τστὸ
Ὁ
sa
Ast
eon
thesonofIsis, ofthe
STONE
lire
sebau
enemies
ot pat
her-sen
tothem
em
in
GS
bu = pen
place that
bi) TSA
Rhent (Ὁ)
aforetime.
sebau
The enemy
[PTOLEMY V PUNISHES THE LEADERS OF THE
REBELLION AGAINST HIS FATHER PTOLEMY IV
PHILOPATOR]
κα {iI Qs
ask
tf) SH
um-Sen
behold had gathered together the soldiers, they were
Ὑττ
em
at
djeteb
© ov
»
=
tep-sen
their head,
AES:
[
ee
de
Her
meshau
KA
Swe
seteman-sen
they led astray
vdd
ΘῈ oor
Sere.
Ww
π
tatu
Sa
teshu
the nomes,
pit
tch-sen
Oa
mien
they μή βρη ki:Horus Lands, fee transgressed
e. the temple
ah
the way
properties),
[δ᾽
nu
of
a
hem-f
His Majesty
ha
and
tef-f
sheps
his father august
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
τ
erta
147
ei
neteru
kheb-f
Seni the gods that
am-sen
Were eee some of them
he should conquer.
So
em
ote]
Aneb
Hetch-t
into White Wall (7.6. Memphis)
N23
=
em
w
&& ς * ἡ) Sa
Tas
heb
Seep
sek
at the festival of
the receiving
4
fae
ἢ) Ke Se
nesuit
behold
«-.---
Ι
a
el)
em
tef-f
of the kingdom from
his father,
Soe
4 Ι
tl
Cy
smam
em
erta
tepu
khe-t
slaying by placing [them] upon stake[s].
[PTOLEMY V REMITS THE ARREARS OF TAXES AND
CONTRIBUTIONS DUE TO THE KING FROM THE
TEMPLES]
;
cig!
©
ἾΞΞΞΞΕ ὙΠ
1
|
gesh
nu
The pee)
of taxes
)kihem-f
&
S
—
wee
«-5
tii
3
un
kher
gesu
peru
of His Majesty, which were with the temples,
a
ae
ἢ
τι
τ
Bin ey
τ hedj
nefrit
er
ἘΞ IX hesbn(?) smen uah
mae
heavy.
up to year 9,
=
(?)
F
ἵ ]]a
HH}
<a
a
eas
|
ww
|
ha
uahtt
erta-Sen
and
grain,
gave them.
|
Ι
many, τ, of silver
(1.6. money)
148
THE
ROSETTA
US
eo
«-Ξ-Ξ5
|| Ane
hem-f
His Majesty
er
ta
_ to the ground,
Sa
767
O
ΤᾺ
en
=&
ὃ
en
mn
«----»
1
un
—_—ikher
which was with
«----
Φ
SS
τ 6 Ἐ<>
feeπαἢ
peg
as concerning the
cloth of
ἘΞ
matet
aru
Likewise
(7.6. he remitted them).
Net | eee
ὅλ
em
STONE
.π-ι. =|a
erta
er
pernesu
byssus to be
given
to the house
of the King,
Ome ate
Dees
rit
NL
gesu
peru
the temples,
ha
and
κ᾿
Ὁ
sta
the balance (?)
ee
|epee ae ersa
wn
——!
<>
neferit
up
have delivered
Ps
Ἷ
ahi
[He]
νι:
Π
ment
{6γ
ter-en-sen
fixed of the cloth fwhich they should
ery
to
δ
gen
pen
period this.
=
Y
{)
os
Ϊ8 "
en
ua
uahtt
heka
V
xX
So
-ΞὭος
»ὦ
shet-iu
remitted of the grain bushels 5 which were taken
See 5 πὴ
ia
au
matet
Satt-ta
on the arura
el
5
em
ap-t
the measure
em
ah-t
in the field
|
nu
neteru
of the gods,
aru
and likewise
HIEROGLYPHIC
πὸ
TRANSLATION
τ ποῦ
em
arp-sen
of
em
149
7.
ah-t
muh
ary
their wine [which was taken on the arura] in the
vineyard.
[THE ENDOWMENTS OF APIS, MNEVIS, AND THE
OTHER SACRED ANIMALS MADE BY PTOLEMY V]
Sey
So
Ee
ἘΣ
<x νυν
aritu-nef aakhu
uru
He made (eee
en
Hap
of Apis [and]
ments
R3
\\ ἢ
©
Ge
ἢ
Merur
Mnevis
ha
and
=
w=ΟΣ
ΞΞΞ
>
fa
«----
aakhu
em
λεγε.
ἐγ
auiu
neb
sacred animal
every,
oe
MO |
o |
wigs
φ
rit
tit
ca
A
Ι
endowments
ari-sen
en
tep-au
ab-f
j
tors. Site
JS His maa)
heart
had made they [his]
ancestors
more than
aq
her
went (1.6. )
with
{occupying
}
“τ
-
7?)
-
«5 _—ww
9
Θ
πα ἢ ἐφξε
ἐ5
sekheru(?)-sen
em
at(?)
mneb
erta
their plans (or, affairs)
at
11
SY
—
BS RE
nebt
djar-sen
every [which] they needed
momentevery.
nef khet
He gave thing
150
THE
ROSETTA
—
26
N
ey
STONE
en
=
pid
o
uf
o]
ab
dje-t-sen
we
«-Ξ-5 ἃ
@
djesertu
uri
for the embalmment of their bodies abundantly, lavishly.
eee
ae
IS ae
athi-nef
sekhen
am-sen
au
neter-hetu-sen
He brought
providing
in them
for
their temples
SEBS
em
heb
aa
αὐ
Θ
wuah
akh
is ee
ἘΞΞΞ--
seger
at the festival great burnt offerings,
[animals for] slaughter,
=a
uten
ha
ee!
drink offerings,
and
thing every usually made (¢.e. offered),
nebt
tut
μι
eae
s-maa
tep
arranging in the
in the very
correct manner,
Ge
em
best way,
Ι
Θ
en
ar
π92.::
peru
in the temples,
Bek
Ye, Mea τς x
ha
khe-t
and
things
SS,
<=) '
&
ὡς τ δ RE τι
}‘i xa
nebt
uru
ἢ
Βα.
τ eg
-sen
hem-f
in great
een
of
Egypt
[provid
gypt [provided]
them
j
Hisi Majesty
Ame 1 τ --
mo!
i
ΡΝ
hepu
EM COANE,
RS
ayes
SA
[maintaining]
awn
2 \\
ma
enti
er
according to what [is] in the laws.
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
RMS TRIED
=
erta-nef
nubu hedjh-t
He gave
gold [and] silver [and] grain large quantities
nahit
ur
SSS
--"
NA
a
[eae ea
her
khet
nebt
and
things
ofall kinds
ma
a
--ν--
anew
|e)
τὦ ὃ
2
he-t
sekhen
enti
tsp
Hap
t
ἷ
τ
menkh-t
perfect
exceedingly,
ΠΡῸΣ ΤῊΣ
he made torise
ἰ|
nema
nefruss
new, it was beautiful
ΕἸ
maat
|!
Μά s-khaker dm
τὰ Leal
|
shes
er
for
Apis the living, and decorated [it]
em
ka-t
with work
eal
ash-sen
ankhi
em
hem-f
His Majesty
<>
JT A
however many they were
\\ RS
the temple of dwelling of
em
151
Hap
-----
«ankhi
eres
Hapi, the living one, in it.
[THE DEVOTION OF PTOLEMY V TO THE SERVICE
OF THE GODS AND HIS REWARD]
cw
ee
νον
ayν oa
as
. nef
He set up
Al a |
Sahl
Cees
ΦΞΞΞΞ
Soma)
μὰ:
I>
ΙΕ|Ι
neter hetu
khemu
khan
temples, and chapels, and altars
152
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
KGRTY Te Ui Pd Ὧ
en
neteru
5857,
hem-f
em
ib
anew ae the gods.
Behold His Majesty [had] the heart
ον
en neter menkh sher
| bavi eh
neteru
her
nedjr
a god perfect towards the gods, concerning himself with
of
aol = Buel
[||
-----
σα Ὁ ὁ Ὁ
gesu peru
neferu
the affairs (Ὁ)
of the temples
beautiful,
ae ἂν τ
π΄ἷ-
smau-sen
so ἐπε they might renew
Y
en
Ϊστὸ
met-neb-ua
ddd ὁ“gen
neteru neterit
ς
goddesses
rek-f
his time
ἢ
\V
SS
ὅτῳ}
ἢ Iss
0}
the sole rule [of himself].
the gods and\
em
in
Χ
victory,
asur
enen
_—_erta-nef
As a reward for J these things rae
given him
wa
al
nekh-t
might,
ΠΤ, senb
ankh
udja
life, strength,
health
» Some words, the equivalent of the Greek τά te προσδεόμενα
ἐπισκευῆς προσδιωρθώσατο, are omitted here.
* The words in brackets are supplied from N 11.
* The words in brackets are supplied from Phil. II, 7.
HIEROGLYPHIC
.----Ξ
Θ
=<
her
a
khe-t
TRANSLATION
153
a
j
nefer
neb-t
Fae
bn
au-sen
er
and everything good to the fullest possible extent of them ;
See
ae
viii 6διάξει 1
i)
a
er
dau-t-f
ur-t
tet-tu
ie -f
hé
is
his rank
great
established
for him
and
w=
2|
ΞΞΞΞ Al Te
oa
-
Ι
Aw
khartu-f
en dyes
his children for ever.
[THE PRIESTS DECIDE TO AUGMENT THE HONOURS
PAID TO PTOLEMY V AND HIS ANCESTORS]
Dames
ha
sekhen
And
ahappening
nefer
good [may there be]!
isa
aq-s
It entered
em
into
τ
vres-t
a
ab
theheart
en
uabu
ofthe priests
nu
of
aterts
temples
NENG τἰιρϑό τοι
meht
f th
d
South
ee
ma
Zem-sen
metu
the
Sacre
words
ἐπὶ ἜΡΩΣ
genus
ight
mie
154
THE
ROSETTA
“mq τ
STONE
ta 2
=)
nesu-bat
Ptulmis
Gnkh djet
Ptah
of the King
of the South
Ptolemy,
the everliving,
the beloved
of Ptah,
mer
and North,
i cra Sei
neter pert
neb
ἢ
em khent Her
ca
&
neferu
the god appearing, lord of benefits
SPIES Ὡςεν
au
to
S-UY-SEN
increase them,
v vd
Ty
taius
in the Horus Lands,
ee id
hi
khep en
neterut merur atur
and the [deeds] of { the two gods }
lovers of fathers
(Philopatores)
fo te το
s-khep
su
who begot him,
ied
il
s-khep
of the two Well-doing
gods (Euergetai)
who caused
to exist
ix
ES
gemat
{those who] created
him,
Rh
oidlfld
nelerut senut
and
iss
neterut menkhutr
of the two Brothergods (Adelphoi)
eu maunalee
s-khep
ar-sen
who caused the
making of them,
ieof
1 The passage in brackets has been restored from the texts
of the two Decrees found on the walls of the temple at
Philae ; for the details see Sethe, of. cit., p. 188.
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
155
ἢἢ
alli
Y “Pin
neterut nedjur
djenfu
en
the two gods ΤῊ
the fathers (?)
save (Soteres),
[THE
PRIESTS
PTOLEMY
DECIDE TO
V AND THE
of begetter their.
SET UP STATUES
CHIEF LOCAL GOD
OF
IN
EACH OF THE TEMPLES OF EGYPT]
a Ven OSE
khent
en
mtutu s-aha
Shall be set up a
statue
Sa
‘Ptulmis
wi
nesu-bat
of
the King of the South
and North,
ese Ge)
τὉ.
Ptolemy,
ankh djetTeer
the everliving,
=>
es
=
SS
meter
pert
the god appearing,
mer
beloved of Ptah,
QE =. Sects
5
μοῦ
neferu
lord of benefits,
κε
ka-tu
ren-f
shall be called his name
<—_
Pee)
οὐ
Ptulmis᾿
“Ptolemy,
η 6471
Baq-t
una-f
the Avenger of Baq-t ”’ J the interpre-
of
tation whereof
2)
a {) (=
Ξ -
ἢ |
pu
Ptulmis
is
“Ptolemy,
nnn
ἜΞΞΞΙ
<<
δῷ
nekhtt
the strong one
Kam-t
of Kam-t”’ (Egypt),
156
THE
ROSETTA
[tet
ha
and
ποι
S
ie,
(6)
Rhent
a statue
oO
--
&
«---.ὄ» *
nu
of the
neter
nu-t
god of thecity
Ζι ©)
κι
khepesh nesu en
gen
a sword royal of victory,
lea
STONE
erta-nef
giving to him
Ged ae
=i
em Qcebhur
inthe two Qebh
{3}
en
khem-t
in _ sanctuary
Ι =
Ee)
neb her ven-f em usekh-t
mashau enth
every by itsname, in the court of the soldiers of
ει
em
ba-t
of the ae
he-t neter
hee-house
temple),
νὸν}
Bag-t
mesentiu
nu
of allartisans of
ae
Egypt.
Shiller zz.) essen
Solis=
emtu
s-aqu
nu
he-t neter em
Moreover
{the priests who
have the entry
of the
house of the
god in
into the sanctuary
ret 7neb herhe ren-f
amet
"νῷ
erpi
Ι
temple
every
Xo
akSah
khenui
|
δ
apen
two statues
these
shems
by its earn
shall
serve
ine
—+—
| EES
em
O98
sep
times
I
=
111
3
em
in
[Ὰ
Θ
+
kher
the course of
hru
the day,
her
[and]
<>
Π (ste)
1 The words in brackets are supplied from the texts found
at Philae.
HIEROGLYPHIC
=
iil
<<
B
Oo
ar
erta
shall cause to
set forth
TRANSLATION
ran
11
ears
tebh
157
rae
itl
wns
An
ao\\
em-bah-sen
the sacred implements of the cult
ariti-sen
before them,
Bede shall
perform
6
Ὁ
GO
tep-ret
neb
tut
en
ka-sen
prescribed
ceremony
every
in correct
fashion
for
their
double[s]
ar
||
en
ee
neteru
as » it were
— (fas
>
{la κα
nia
Y YRS
e
eing
[1
—
|
em
hebu
hespu
for the gods of the nomes_
FT
|
on the festivals
performed
©
©
|
WW
teh
FO
name
55.
+e
©
genu(?)
her
her
at the beginning)
and
on the day of the
of the seasons
of the year,
ΠῚ
65
=
iN
ha (Ὁ)
and
enthronement
J
—_—
Θ
hru
[each] day
ee
-Ε
(eD|
Xo
em ~~ ren-f
by its name.
[A WOODEN
STATUE OF PTOLEMY
OF GOLD,
SHALL
BE
V, IN A SHRINE
SET
UP]
ὔὐσ΄᾿--:-.
emtutu.
mes
akhu
They shall fashion a statue splendid
en
nesu-bat
of {the King of al
South and the
North,
J
158
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
abi
Ptulmis
Ptolemy,
meter — pert
neb —_neferu
the god appearing, the lord of benefits,
Ὑ
:
son
.
WK
ayaa il
ao
a
aS
nesu-bat
Ptulmis
the King of the South
Ptolemy
and the North,
᾿ἢ
ὯΝ
Sana!
<>
Φ
λᾶ
heq-t
ἰαμὶ
Arsna
and
the Queen, the Lady of the
Two Lands (1.e. Egypt),
Arsinoé,
He
nebt
Fa
eet
neterur
merus atur
the two gods loving fathers (Philopatores),
κοι
ha
eel ea
ga (Ὁ)
shebs
em
djam
meh
em
and {(pees ὦ} splendid of silver-gold inlaid with
(portabl
FoR
ἘΞΞΞΞΞ [ΞΞἢ
om
T 111 @
da-t
neb
stone (precious) every
|
en
of
mad-t
em erpin
ποῦ
{genuineness } in temple every
x
her
ren-f
by itsname,
(t.e. real gems,
not paste)
—
heteb
em
shallbeset in
bu dyjeser
place holy
|
her gau(?)
aa with a
shrines
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
159
ee
ae= ἢ
nu
neteru
of the gods
ar
aref
Now therefore when
hespu
ofthe nomes.
πος
khep
take place
Os
Pe
aiet
well
areas
hebu
suru
per neter em
qebh-t
sheps
er
the festivals great,
{and cometh forth [each])
god from his retreat (?) }
|
-τρ--
" Es
Pe
ams”
@ ©
per-f
am-sen
emtutu
peels
(PTA)
his house ᾿ among
(i.e shrine)
ee
προς
aS
R
ἧς Ὁ
s-kha
them,
Ne δαMMI
Yen
(Ὁ) sheps
holy
shall rise up (in
the processions) \
1 τpert
neter
==
the shrine holy of the god who appeareth,
Ser ae 1
ΞΞΩΣ
neb_neferu
her-sen
the lord of benefits, along with them.
[DESCRIPTION
5
ev
OF THE
moi]
De.
erta
saa-tu
ΝΞ
ἘΞΞ "ἢ
ΞΘ
In order to make [men] to recognize
ΤΙ
τ
hu-pen
day this
er
to
ΠῚ Π
SHRINE]
|ol
AAA
ga(?)
then
om
shrine
this,
from
<=
Τ᾿ AL aati met
(RE τὶ
hents
henti periods
renput
of years,
emtutu
ta
shall be placed
160
THE
eee
ROSETTA
STONE
a el
il
sehen
x
nu
hem-f
ey
neter-t (?)
crowns
10
of
His Majesty
with
{ an uraeus
)
(.e. cobra)
il Sees
ΘΝ
NT) Th
tep-d-sen
on their fronts,
SE
=
eee
τοῦ
aes
em
on
ua
one
ned
every
am
among [them].
esa ce
ma
ay
As is done
τ τες.
tep nefer
properly
em
sehen
in respect of crown
(or, rightly)
neb
every,
To RRthen emHeasut Yen ΠΞ
urti
AN
her tep ga(?)
upon shrine
this,
instead
of
un
the two uraei
{which] are [usually]
Ie
1
ἃ
US
q
i
ei a =
her
au
sekhem-tt
em
her-ab
tep ga(?)
SS
aru
on the tops of shrines, the double crown in the middle of them ;
By
«Ξοο
δ
djerents
because
SS (Se Pen
εξ
SS = [5] δch
pest
hem-f
am-f
shone
His Majesty
init
ete
hes
em-khet
_—ar-nef
aru
after
fhe had performed ceremony
every [at the]
neb
em
het
Ptak
in the house of Ptah
wily
ot
bes
mesU
introduction
of the King
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
161
= all) ee
a
er
into
kheft
seshep-nef
aaut-f
when he received his rank
ra
he-t neter
the temple
Y
<>
Ge
(es,
a
δὰ
emtutu
wn
|
(=
τὸς
Pe
S
erta
on
es
hert
en
p-
aft
the side upper
of
the rectangle
(?)
so
(ay Νὰ
ents
which
|
-—
ges
a
Ty 4s 7 =~
sa
sehenu apen
is on it outside of crowns this,
(og:
ene
©
δ
sekhem-tt
double crown
ur-t
great,
a)
em
and shall be placed
oe
Ges
|
Le
g
em
aqa
opposite
en
to
1
pen
shema
ha
uadj-t
this, acluster of rushes and a papyrus cluster.
Ὁ τ
her
bt a-
?
ἜΞΞΞΕΞΣ
|
neb-t
shema
Rher-s
her
[There shall be] a vulture
on a basket [and]
a cluster
of reeds
under her
on
ans
2
—_
τἢ OY
qah
unemt
the angle (or corner) right
R 10
th
ge
a
ara
an uraeus
matet
likewise
en
of
2
—=)
Wn
ga(?)
shrine
eZ
then
this, [and]
i
her
mneb-t uadj-t
on a basket [and]
a papyrus cluster
Δ-.-
<——
kher-s
under her
L
162
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
ee
«ὃ.
her
gah-s
abti
on
her angle
left, the meaning
(or, corner)
whereof is,
7A)
|
a
oO
—=
ea]
MTR
@
πᾶ
pu
Nebts
Jf the Lord of the
ὶ
Two Crowns
de
τς
schedj
Tam
Mlumineth the Two Lands (1.6. Egypt).
[FESTIVALS
ARE TO BE CELEBRATED
BIRTHDAY OF PTOLEMY V AND ON
OF HIS ACCESSION TO THE THRONE
ON THE
THE DAY
IN EACH
MONTH]
SS)
NAA
——~
djerenti
(EX \W\\
ΜΉ
ἄδέ ΠῚ
Θ
Inasmuch as
is
shemu
ἄγᾳ
ὯΝ the fourth month of aoe
the last day
season of the inundation
Qo) gt
hru
ele lee ed games
hru
mes
neter
nefer
the day of the birth of the god beneficent
anhk djet
[and] everliving,
i) et ee
tet-t
em
heb
was established
as
a festival [and]\
day of rejoicing
hi
ἀμὸν
re
(By
ass
--Ξ
(Ne
eRras
ha-t
matt
aru
in former times,
kha
Ller-taus
{the Horus Lands
(i.e. on temple
estates)
΄“---
-Ξ--
likewise
em
jn
{ΠῚ =
ἢ
-“9--
en
abt-II
Θ
Akhet
of the second month
of the season Akhet
Wt
tt
sesu XVII
\ day
f{
17
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
163
ὌΝ παν
ττο ἢ
kha
em
seshep-nef
{whereon] he Betts the ceremony
of the coronation of the King
| when
he received
{
ἀγῖ-af
n
ar
le
nesu
NYeres
nesurt
em
the kingdom from
tef-f
his father.
la
or
15
evref
khent
Behold now ne beginning
(or source)
|\
Ga
3
“i
GR
em
of
—
Rhe-t
things
neb-t
all
ΠῚ
aakhu
splendid
itm
uru
[and] great [that]
a
τῷ
τ
ἀπ
1
1}
tepu
taiu
Ss
to those who are on the Lands
t
ankh dyjet
3
τὴν
—_
--ὡ--
----
neter nefer
of a“ god beneficent,
isthe birth
F—
Th
seshep
aaut-f
[his] reception of
oO
᾿6)
apeu
these,
ha
living forever, and
to I> RM ee τὶ
menkh-t
au
rank exalted
(or, perfect).
Let ΤᾺ
al
ὌΝ
δ ᾿
XVII
ἄγῃ sesu
the 17th [and] the last day
δι
O\
Sesu
made
days
-»-
em
in
SS
εἰς
abt
month
neb
each,
L2
164
THE
ΤῸ
ROSETTA
STONE
bbe 7 be i Sane
em
gesu peru
nu
in
the temples
of Egypt
into a festival
el
€ ©
Bagq-t
uah
het
akh
ufenu
ha
libations,
and
=—!
ἘΞΞΞΞ
seger
Shall be offered a
shall be poured out
burnt offering,
-
au-sen
all of them.
“exile eae) erin
a
emtutu
au
ὃς. Yl ~==<@
art
khe-t neb-t
shall be
performed
ΖΞΞΞΞ
yr
em
heb
tut
en
everything [which]
it is right
la
se
“Πα
fe)
|
Be
apen
tep
abt
mneb
month
every.
in festival{s]these
an
em
to do
ΓΞ
pew 4
)
during the
festivals
<x
SEZ
=
khe-t
neb-t aritu
is done on
δ:
τι
hebu
sa
mneb
ὃ
= apen
seshem
festivals these shall
be conducted
Sl
em
he-t neter
in the temple.
du
for
em
Everything which
Wi i. tf IS
\
(EEE,
@a
art
ee
ay U
fua-t-sen
men all who perform
their service
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
165
[A FIVE-DAY FESTIVAL AT THE BEGINNING OF THE
MONTH OF THOTH SHALL BE CELEBRATED
ANNUALLY IN HONOUR OF PTOLEMY V]
PE
emtutu
ee
a
heb
kha
en
gesuperu
a festival
{and]
a day of
rejoicing
in
the temples of
ar
There shall be
celebrated
as
R2 gS OY
nu
Μ
tet
Baq-t
er
au-sen
en
nesu-bat
Egypt,
all of them,
of
the King of the South
and the North.
ee
ea
Ptulmis
ankh
Ptolemy,
τ
djet
the everliving,
ee
meri
of Ptah
beloved,
ie hy οὖς
=)
netey
pert
the god appearing,
Ptah
a
neb
neferu
lord of benefits,
tep renp-t
yearly,
sha
beginning
RK fo om
oleo 3
em
tep
Ses
i
the first
De
month
akh-t
ον
of the season | ἃ
1}
y
<<
V
5.
meh
garland[s}
er
on
{The oe
shall wear
ὃ
nefrit
er
hu
I
u
to
da
᾿
" roo
an
djadja-sen
s-heb
theirheads, f shall be
made festal
y
166
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
iit ie
a
ae
khau
s-qer
utenu
ha
khe-t
—neb-t
the altars, ae be poured\
and
thing
every ge
out libations,
ea
‘\ proper
<I
2
en
\\
= ar-lt
to do
{shall be done].
[THE PRIESTS
OF PTOLEMY V SHALL
ADDITIONAL TITLE]
GAG
S
bth
uabu
The priests
nu
of
gesu peru
the temples
2
neb
every
ASSUME
Tine”
erpr
temple
a
δὴ
}Ἵ TO
N
ie
ven-f
by its name,
= tie
tt
ka-tu-sen
shall be called
em
δον
au
in addition to
ve eee
Seca
ie
hem neter pers
J “ priest of the
\god
appearing,
το
aaut
uabu
the ranks of priests
el UU Ie
=<
<>
en-sen
amt
serer
of them (i.e. in addition to
Let
write
their other priestly titles).
(sée)
Δ
Soe Pm tare
μοῦ
neferu
lord of benefits”
AN
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
© |
Geta Sem |
patter
1
o>
at
Lea
R 13 rit
~~
KS
2-΄---
sen
su
her
tep-ta-
them
it
upon
documents their,
meter
ΡΣ
i
en
the rank
‘“ Priest
of
i)
NE
eee
engraved
Gell
ποῦ
pert
ἘΞ
a
her
ΝΣ let be
an
—_neferu
lord of benefits ”’
the god appearing,
ΧΟ
Ξ
khet-tu
ee
aaut
ἡ ap:
Sa OQ
ret-sen
ἜΣ
TD
(XD)
tet-sen
upon the ring[s] [worn on] their hand{s].
[PRIVATE PERSONS SHALL BE ALLOWED TO
THESE HONOURS TO PTOLEMY δ]
qf) dm
eoa aan
qo
ds
aret
Behold therefore
it
PAY
ee
Θ
\\
Un-s
em
adui
is
1
in
the hands
mM! oVre 16} Pic? 12 a
man
AWA
|
uneniu
of [those] people
en-sen
alu
who are wishful
s-aha
matet
pa
to set up a copy of shrine
5
8
shee FE
ten
this
en
of
neter
pert
the ‘“‘God appearing,
Ἔν ΘῈτ
neb
neferu
lord of benetits”’
168
THE
ROSETTA>
ΞΞΞΞΞΣ
=>
77
Ss,
a
am
al)
NNO
erta
Apel
igenaags
|
for it to be
he
1@@
unis
emtutu
sen
They shall
[== -te
uUnen-s
to arrange
Ζ
STONE
a,
lo
ar
tt
khau
days of
[6]
apen
these
«-ΞΞ-
sos
=&
erta
saau-tu
unen
er
each month [and] each year
“Ξ-ΞΞ
(6 it
1
their houses.
i
hebu
festivals [and]
|
|
teh remp-t
|
Sy
in
New,
celebrate
* ©
abt
per-sen
τ
a
]
lep
]}
rejoicing
J to make it be understood
Ae
&
Na
|
-ΞΞΞ5
ὦ
amiu
Ta-Mer-t
the dwellers in Egypt
{that] are,
her
djeser
glorifying
a συ
neter pert
the ‘God
appearing,
πὸῦ
neferu
lord of
benefits,”’
[TH1s DECREE
SHALL
Pea
skhau
decree
om ὅνἐ-- Bm
em
ma
φεν
enti
er
tep nefer
even as is most right
{
and proper.
BE PUBLISHED]
Seke ἐ:
khet-tu
Shall be engraved
rut
tid
em
skh
tie hard in the writing
pen
this
ee
τ
uponatablet
Ἴἰ
en
metu neter
of {2 words of }
the god (t.e.
hieroglyphs),
enti
οἵ
ha
skh
en
and in the
writing of
HIEROGLYPHIC
TRANSLATION
169
=
as
books (t.e. demotic) [and in] the writing
᾿
&
Bin = NR
eee
erta
aha-f
Shall be made oe
stand it
re
δὺ
her
ren-f
by its name
em
in
= gesu peru
em
εγῤῖ
the sanctuaries in temples
i;
!
em
of the
meh 1
first,
ST
Ul
khent
the statue
neb
all
ttl
meh II
meh III
second (and] third [{orders]
ee ge
er
ges
by the side of
Lvs
=
the Greeks.
en
of
ee
Nesu-bat
τὸς King of the ae
and North,
SS
BPS
aa
Ptulmis
ankh
a
Ptolemy,
--
ἘΞΞΞ»
TS
ay)
d
djet
everliving,
Sa
ee
neter
pert
neb
neferu
the God appearing, the lord of benefits.
Ptah
meri
of Ptah beloved,
A SHORT
ACCOUNT
DECIPHERMENT
OF
OF
THE
EGYPTIAN
HIEROGLYPHS
"
CHAPTER
V
I.—HIEROGLYPHIC, HIERATIC AND DEMOTIC
(ENCHORIAL) WRITING
The
GREEKS
ἱερογλυφικὰ
called
HIEROGLYPHIC
OF, ipa ypaypata,
and
seem
WRITING
to have
‘regarded it as a system of religious symbols of a
mystical character, each of which possessed an
esoteric meaning, which the Egyptian priests
employed in engraving inscriptions on stone monuments.' The GREEKS also knew that the priests
used a cursive or simplified form of hieroglyphic
writing when transcribing books, and to this they
gave the name of HIERATIC (teparixa) ; a still more
simplified form was used in writing letters and
business documents, and this was called
DEMoTIC
(δημοτικά), or ENCHORIAL.
Hieroglyphs had no
specially sacred character, though they were used
to write the ‘“‘ words of the god,’ and there was
nothing mystical or magical about them, for they
are merely figures or pictures of objects, animate
and inanimate, which stood for a word, a syllable,
or a simple letter. The word “hieroglyphs ”’ is
used to describe the figures used in Mexican and
other picture-writings,
e.g. the Chinese, as well
as those found in the Egyptian inscriptions.
174
THE
ROSETTA
-STONE
The EGyptTiaANs believed that hieroglyphic
writing was invented by the god THOTH, and
there is evidence that it, and the cursive form of
it (Hieratic), were used in EGypt throughout the
dynastic period, and, for purely official purposes,
until the second or third century a.D.
It is
doubtful when exactly the Demotic script came
into general use, but it is probable that it superseded the Hieratic script under the XXVIth
Dynasty, say about B.c. 600. Accurate knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was confined to the
priests,
who
established
schools
in their colleges
and temples, where the young men who were
needed to keep the accounts and manage the
business of the temples were educated.
In these
too were trained the scribes who made the copies
of the various Books OF THE DEAD which were
sold to the public, and probably also the scribes
who’ were employed by the Government in the
fiscal and other Departments of State. There
was no system of general education in EGypt, and
very few members of the public could read the
inscriptions on the temples and obelisks and other
monuments that were set up by the PHARAOHS.
And it is doubtful if any adequate knowledge of
hieroglyphic writing existed among the peoples
who
raided
or conquered
Ecypt.
PIANKHI,
the
Nubian, and some of his successors at NAPATA
set up stelae covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, but the drafts of the texts were undoubtedly
USE
OF
STIEROGLYPHS*BY
PERSIANS’
175
the work of native Egyptian scribes, and the
sculptors who carved the reliefs on them, and the
masons who cut the inscriptions, were native
Egyptians.
Both reliefs and texts betray the
hand of the skilled and experienced workman.
And no king of this Nubian Dynasty added a
translation of his Egyptian text into any of the
dialects of Lower NusBIA (KENSET) or KASH
(Κ 58), for the Meroitic script which we find on
several of the buildings of the PTOLEMIES was
not invented in the VIIIth century B.c. The
Meroitic script appears to have been developed
out
of
the
Demotic,
and it was
much
used
in
writing commemorative and funerary inscriptions
in the first two or three centuries of the Christian
Era.
II.—THE
THE
USE
OF
PERSIAN
EGYPTIAN
HIEROGLYPHS
CONQUERORS
OF
BY
EGYPT
The first conqueror of EGyptT to set up stelae
engraved with hieroglyphic inscriptions, accompanied by translations in the language or languages
of his native country,
was
Darius
I, the Great,
who arrived in Egypt about B.c. 517. To commemorate one of the greatest works which he did
in Ecypt, 1.6. the digging of a canal to join the
NILE and the RED SEA, he set up large stelae at
several places along the line of the canal, and
the remains of several of them have been
176
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
found.1 These quadrilingual stelae were inscribed
in hieroglyphs on one side, and in three kinds of
cuneiform writing on the other, the languages
represented by the cuneiform
scripts being
PERSIAN, ELAMITE (or, SUSIAN) and BABYLONIAN.
On the remains of the stelae found at TALL ALMASKHOTAH,
and at SARABYOM
(the SERAPEUM),
and at SHALOF and at Suwés (SUEZ), a figure
of the king was sculptured on each side, and
below were the inscriptions in the four languages
giving the name of Darius and his titles as
king of the whole world.
(For the texts see
WEISSBACH
and BANG,
schriften, Leipzig, 1893.)
Die
altpersischen
Darius
built
Ketlin-
a large
temple in honour of AMEN-RA in the OasIs OF
KuHARGAH, and endowed a college at Sais for
the education of the priests, and it is probable
that he intended PERsIANS to be taught therein
the Egyptian language and the art of writing
in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Though Darius did
so much for Egypt, and made handsome gifts
to the temples, and did all he could to develop
native
institutions
and
commerce,
he
failed
to
make the language of Persia general in Ecypt, and
the traces of Persian influence in the country
were soon obliterated.
1 The canal ran, from a place near
BuBasTis, through the
modern WApi TOmiLAT, and passing Pa-TEM (PITHOM) made
its way
directly to the RED
SEA.
WIEDEMANN, Aég. Geschichte, p. 680.
For
the
literature,
see
USE
OF
IlI.—THE
HIEROGLYPHS
USE
THE
OF
EGYPTIAN
PTOLEMIES
AND
BY
PTOLEMIES
HIEROGLYPHS
177
BY
CAESARS
Through the advent of the Greek mercenary,
and the Greek trader, the knowledge of the Greek
language spread rapidly throughout Ecyprt, and
after the peaceful annexation of the country by
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, the study and use of
hieroglyphic writing began to decline.
The
Egyptian scribes learned Greek, and the cultured
Greeks who settled in ALEXANDRIA, DAPHNAE
(TALL-DAFANNAH), ASWAN and NAucRaATIS, and
other large towns in Ecypt, learned Egyptian.
Copies of the whole or parts of the Saite Recension
of the Book OF THE DEAD were no longer written
in hieroglyphs, but in Hieratic, and even in the
Demotic script. And although Egyptians in the
Ptolemaic period continued to have hieroglyphic
texts written on coffins and funerary stelae and
other tomb-furniture, it is tolerably certain that
they were not understanded of the people. The
PTOLEMIES, as Kings of EGypt, adopted the
ancient
titles of the PHARAOHS,
and caused
the
inscriptions on the temples and other buildings
which
they
restored,
or
hieroglyphic characters;
rebuilt,
to
be
cut
in
but the language used
at their Court was Greek, and the Greek language
became predominant in the country.
Legal and
commercial documents were frequently written
in Demotic and Greek, and the priests began to
forget how to read and write the old pictureM
178
language
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
of the
country.
The
importance
of
Greek in the Ptolemaic period is proved by the fact
that the Decree which the priests promulgated at
CANOPUS in honour of ProLtemy [1], EUERGETEs I,
and the Decrees which the priests promulgated at
MEMPHIS in honour of PTOLEMY IV PHILOPATOR,
and ProLtEMY V EPIPHANES, were first drafted in
Greek and not in the Egyptian
language.
The
Demotic version follows the Greek fairly closely,
but the hieroglyphic versions show that their
writers did not always know how to translate
the Greek accurately.
In some cases without
the Greek original and the Demotic translation it would be impossible to translate the hieroglyphs.
The Carsars, who followed the example of the
Persian conquerors of Egypt, and the PTOLEMIEs,
adopted the principal titles of the PHARAOHS, and
permitted, or perhaps ordered, their benefactions
to the priesthoods of Ecypt to be recorded on the
walls of the temples which they repaired, or
rebuilt, in inscriptions written in hieroglyphs.
But neither the PTOLEMIEs nor the CAESARS took
steps to prevent the knowledge of hieroglyphic
writing from dying out.
ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ
II instructed
MANETHO, a priest of SEBENNYTUS, to write a
History OF Ecypt for him in Greek, but it was
the information contained in the Egyptian texts
that he wanted, and not the preservation
original language.
of the
GREEK
IV.—GREEK
Though
Greek
WRITERS
WRITERS
there
writers
ON
ON
HIEROGLYPHS
EGYPTIAN
are
passages
like
HECATAEUS,
179
HIEROGLYPHS
in the
works
of
HERODOTUS,
and Dioporus, which mention the hieroglyphs
and the various kinds of Egyptian writing, they
contain no evidence that their authors understood
the true principles which underlay hieroglyphic
writing. That there were among the learned
Greeks who lived in Egypt men who had a real
knowledge of the meaning and manner of use of
some of the Egyptian hieroglyphs is proved by
the extract given by JOHN TZETZES (A.D. 1110-80)
in his “Exegesis” of Homer’s ΠΡ
He
derived his facts from the work on HIEROGLYPHS!
which was compiled by CHAEREMON? of NAvCRATIS,
who
lived
in the
century after Christ.
first
half
of the
first
CHAEREMON was an official
in the great Alexandrian
Library, and it is clear
that,
he had
as a sacred
scribe,
access
to such
native literature as the Library contained.
The
extract given by TZETZEs is too long to quote here,
but it is given in full by Birch (Tvansactions of
the Royal Society of Literature, vol. 111, 2nd series,
1850, pp. 385-96; and by myself in The Mummy,
and ed., Cambridge, 1925, p. 129 f.). The general
evidence of the extract suggests that CHAEREMON
could read and translate ancient Egyptian texts.
ι Περὶ τῶν ἱερῶν γραμμάτων. This work is no longer extant.
2 He is called Χαιρήμων ὁ ἱερογ͵ αμματεύς by EUSEBIUS.
M2
180
THE
PROSE DRASSTONE
A passage in the “ Stromateis ᾿᾿ of CLEMENT OF
ALEXANDRIA
(born
at
ATHENS
about
A.D.
150,
died about 220) shows that this learned churchman knew that the Egyptians used THREE kinds
of writing, viz., EPISTOLOGRAPHIC (7.6. DEMOTIC
or
ENCHORIAL),
HIERATIC
and
HIEROGLYPHIC.
Hieratic he describes as the writing of the priests.
The Hieroglyphic characters he divided into
CYRIOLOGICAL
and SYMBOLICAL,
and in the latter
the characters
were
as CYRIOLOGICAL
classified
by imitation, or TROPICAL, or ENIGMATICAL.
But
evidence that CLEMENT could read hieroglyphic
writing 15 wanting.
Another interesting work on Egyptian Hieroglyphs (IEPOPAT®IKA), somewhat similar in character to that of CHAEREMON, was compiled by
the grammarian HORAPOLLON, who flourished in
the reign of THEoposiIus I. He was a native of
PHAENEBYTHIS in the nome of PANOPOLIS in
UppEeR EGyptT, and as the town of PANOPOLIS was
at that time a great centre of literary activity, it
is probable that he had access to a number of
ancient Egyptian papyri. Two books which are
said to have formed part of his treatise “ Hieroglyphika’’ are extant. In the introductory passage we are told that they were translated from
the Egyptian language into Greek by a certain
PuiLippus
of whom,
however,
nothing is known.
This seems to suggest that the Greek text which
we now have is at best only a recension of the
GREEK
WRITERS
ON
HIEROGLYPHS
181
original work of HoRAPoLLoN.
The first book
contains evidence that the writer had a good
knowledge of the meanings and uses of Egyptian
hieroglyphs, and that he was familiar with inscriptions of the Ptolemaic and Graeco-Roman periods.
In the second book there are many absurd and
fanciful statements about the meanings and
significations of Egyptian hieroglyphs, and these
are probably the work of the unknown PHILIPPUS,
who
like CHAEREMON, was ignorant of the
phonetic values of the characters he described.
In spite of this the book, as a whole, has a considerable value even to-day. For the Greek text
see Conrad LEEMANS, Hovapollinis Nilot Hteroglyphica, Amsterdam, 1835; and A. T. Cory,
The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous, with an
English translation and notes by S. SHARPE and
5. Brrcu, London, 1840.
As long as the principal temples of Egypt were
protected by the Roman Government, and the
prefects took care that their revenues were not
interfered with, there must have existed during
the first two or three centuries of our Era priests
who studied the ancient literature of the country,
and could read, more or less correctly, the inscriptions on the monuments.
TaciTus tells us (11, 59)
that when GERMANICUS CAESAR visited THEBES,
an aged priest when called upon to read
the inscriptions to him proceeded to read to
him from the monuments the narrative of the
182
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
conquests of RamesEs II, and the lists of tribute
which the various conquered peoples paid to
Ecypt.
And in his “ History’? AMMIAN MARCELLIN quotes (xvii, 4, 817) the Greek translation
of six lines of the hieroglyphic inscription on the
obelisk of RAmEses II which was brought to
RomE by AuGustus, and set up in the Circus
Maximus.
The author of the translation was
one HERMAPION, of whom unfortunately nothing
is known.
V.—THE
INTRODUCTION
EGYPT,
AND
THE
OF
CHRISTIANITY
INVENTION
OF
THE
INTO
COPTIC
ALPHABET
Many of the principal Greek officials who died
in Egypt were mummified, and their coffins,
sarcophagi, funerary coffers and stelae, and even
their mummy bandages, were inscribed in Greek.
But during the whole of the period of Roman rule
in EGypt, the natives continued to mummify
their
dead,
mummies
and
were
the
inscriptions
upon
written
sometimes
in Demotic,
their
and sometimes in hieroglyphs, to many of which
new phonetic values had been given. Many of
these inscriptions are untranslatable.
The event
which brought the use of hieroglyphic writing to
an end for funerary purposes was the adoption of
CHRISTIANITY by the EGypTians as the result of
the alleged preaching of St. MarRK at ALEXANDRIA
in the second half of the Ist century A.D.
The
CHRISTIANS
EGYPTIAN
AND
THE
CHRISTIANS
COPTIC
loathed
ALPHABET
183
and abominated
the religion and gods of their pagan ancestors,
and wholly refused to employ either the hieroglyphic or demotic writing in their funerary
inscriptions.
Some time during the Ist century
B.C. or the Ist century A.D. some persons thought
they they would like to write the Egyptian
language in Greek letters, probably because they
found it very difficult to learn to read and write
the demotic script. But, when they came to do
so, they found
that there were
certain sounds
in
Egyptian for which the Greek alphabet contained
no letters. Thereupon they added to the Greek
alphabet
seven
letters,|
which
were
formed
of
modifications of the hieratic and demotic symbols
of certain hieroglyphs, and by degrees this composite alphabet came into use in the country.
Whether the EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANS ever tried to
write the translations of the Books of the Old and
New
Testaments
in Demotic cannot
be said, but
it is improbable, for their one aim was to free
themselves from contact with everything that
appertained to the religion of their pagan ancestors, whom
The
they regarded as besotted idolators.
name
usually
Christians," ΚΡ
given
to
the
of
Eeyptee
Kubt, 2oriy
Gubt, t7.¢. Ecypr,
thought to be derived from the Greek name
“is
of
Αἴγυπτος,
ΣΡ ΠΈΣΕ
which,
16
Sacha
Gubbi,”
Egyptian
"2.62" man
EGYPT,
vor
in turn,
ec eh τ,
seems
to be
184
THE
derived
from
ROSETTA
HEKAPTAH,
STONE
a name
of MEMPHIS.
Another view is that the original Egyptian word
for Egypt was Ageb, iN iS ae and that it meant
“the land of the flood,”’ 1.6. inundation,
which
was
poured
Ocean
by
the
out
from
Flood-god
the
\ B ἢ mn
great
AGEB,
World-
Ἃ a | DW.
Others again would derive “ Kubti”’ or “ Gubti”’
from the name of the town of ae nsra:
1.6. COpTOS in Upper Egypt, whither the ree
Christians fled in large numbers during the
Roman persecutions.
Be this as it may, the Christian Egyptians are
now,
and
have
for
centuries
been,
known
as
“ Copts,”’ and the Egyptian language written in
Greek letters is called “‘ Copric.”” How important
this form of the Egyptian language was for the early
decipherers of the Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions will be seen later on. In the course of time
the use of Coptic superseded that of demotic in legal
and many commercial documents, and many Books
of the Bible, and the works of many of the Fathers
of
the
Jacobite
Church
were
translated
into
Coptic in the [Vth century. For a century and
a-half after the conquest of Ecypt by ‘AMR IBN
at-Ast, the commander-in-chief of the Khalifah
"OMAR in 641, the Coptic language was employed
by the Arab
ments,
but,
conquerors
as
the
hold
in their
of the
official
ARABS
docuon
the
CHRISTIANS
AND
THE
COPTIC
ALPHABET
185
country increased Arabic took its place.
The
Copts were expelled from Government offices in
the VIIIth century, and then severely persecuted
by the ARABS;
large numbers
of them in Ecypt,
ΝΌΒΙΑ and the SUDAN apostatized, embraced
IsLAm, and adopted the Arabic language.
Coptic
fell into disuse rapidly, and though the CopTs
continued to write the Liturgy in Coptic in their
Service-Books, the priests read the Offices from
the Arabic translations of them which were
written, (and they still are) side by side with the
Coptic texts.
We may say then that all knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was lost by the end
of the IIIrd century A.D. and that the Egyptian
language, 1.6. Coptic, was dead by the end of the
XIIth century.
CHAPTER
I—THE
ATTEMPTS
MADE
EGYPTIAN
HIEROGLYPHS
SIXTEENTH
AND
VI
TO
DECIPHER
IN
EUROPE
SEVENTEENTH
THE
IN
THE
CENTURIES
The study of the Egyptian hieroglyphs and
hieroglyphic writing in what we may call modern
times began with Giovanni Pierio Valeriano
Bolzani, who, under the title of Huzeroglyphica,
published a treatise on the sacred writing of the
Egyptians and other nations, in seven Books, at
Basle in 1556. In an appendix he printed the two
Books of HORAPOLLO (see p. 181), and added
many learned notes, but with the exception of the
material which he collected his work has no
value,
because
he did
not
realize
the nature
of
the problem which he was attempting to solve.
His Hteroglyphica went through numerous editions,
and stirred up interest in the Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions among the learned, especially
in the royal inscriptions engraved on the Egyptian
obelisks in Rome.
Soon after the publication of the Hzeroglyphica,
the question of the re-erection of some of the
fallen obelisks in ROME began to occupy the
minds
of
the
Papal
authorities.
Eventually
ATTEMPTS
TO DECIPHER
HIEROGLYPHS
[187
Pope Sixtus V commissioned FoNnTANA,
the
famous
architect
(1543-1607),
to
dig out
the two largest obelisks, which were buried
under
the ruins of the Circus
Maximus,
and to
re-erect them.
The largest obelisk, that of
THOTHMES III, which was broken into three
pieces, was re-erected by FONTANA in the Piazza
of St. JoHN LATERAN in 1588, and the smaller,
that
of 5ΕΤῚ
I, commonly
known
as the “ Fla-
minian Obelisk,’’ was re-erected by FONTANA in
the ῬΙΑΖΖΑ DEL ΡΟΡΟΙΟ in 1589. The demand in
Rome at this time for information about the
obelisks was so great that Mercati M. was
obliged to issue the work on them which was
entitled
Deglt
Obelischt
dt Rome,
Rome,
1589.
In the following year he published a supplement,
in which he attempted to give the meanings of
the inscriptions on the obelisks, but his explanations are worthless.
The next scholar who tried to decipher the
Egyptian hieroglyphs was Athanasius Kircher
(born at GEISA in 1601, died 1680), a German
Professor of Mathematics in the Collegio Romano
(1635-43).
He was a man of untiring energy
and vast learning, but many of his writings
suggest that he printed the contents of his notebooks without taking the trouble to digest them.
He has been called *‘ charlatan ᾿᾿ and “‘ impostor ”’
by many writers, but a careful perusal of even
what now seem to be his most ridiculous and
188
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
impossible pronouncements, makes
believe that he was not sincere.
it difficult to
Of course he
was an enthusiast, and he held his erroneous views
and beliefs with great tenacity.
In the matter of
Egyptian hieroglyphs it is clear that he thought
that every character represented an idea. One
example will be sufficient to show how this view
affected his so-called translations.
On the
obelisk of DomiITIAN, commonly known as the
‘“Pamphylian Obelisk,” he saw the cartouche
| aS eo ENS
a
this cartouche
.
Now
represent
the seven
the
characters in
transcription
into
hieroglyphs of the Greek title “‘ Autocrator,” but
KIRCHER’S translation of them may be rendered
in English, “ὙΠῸ author of fruitfulness and of all
vegetation is OsIRIS, whose productive force was
produced in his kingdom out of heaven through
the holy Mophta.” All his “ translations’”’ are
equally nonsensical, but those who believed that
he could read the Egyptian hieroglyphs expected
him to produce from them mystical and magical
information, and, like other blind leaders of the
blind, he did what he was wanted to do. He
lived in an age of credulity and superstition, and
was a product of it. In spite of this he was a
learned man, and there is much
interesting
information in the six principal works by which he
is best known, viz., Prodromus Coptus, Rome,
1636; Lingua Aegyptiaca restituta, Rome, 1643 ;
ATTEMPTS
TO DECIPHER
Obeliscus
Pamphilius,
Aegypttact,
Rome,
HIEROGLYPHS
Rome,
1666;
1650;
Sphinx
189
Obelisci
Mystagoga,
Amsterdam,
1676;
and Oedipus Aegyptiacus,
Amsterdam,
1680. During the whole of the
XVIIth century KIRCHER was regarded as a great
Egyptologist, and Sir J. Marshall made use of
his writings in his Canon Chronicus, published at
Frankfort in 1696.
There seems to be no doubt that KIRCHER’S
writings gave an impetus to the study of the
language and antiquities of ancient EGypt, and
a great many books on these subjects appeared
during the XVIIIth century.
Men of learning
who travelled in Egypt during that century made
copies of the inscriptions which they came across,
and among them may be mentioned P. Lucas
(Voyage au Levant, La Haye, 1705); R. Pococke
(Description
of the East, London,
1743-5);
C. Niebuhr (Reise durch Aegypten und Arabien,
Bern, 1779); and F. L. Norden (Antiquities of
Egypt, Nubia and Thebes, London, 1791). But of
the copies of inscriptions published in these works
only those of NIEBUHR can lay any claim to
general accuracy.
Throughout the century many attempts to
decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs were made in
ENGLAND,
FRANCE and GERMANY,
and among the
publications of such attempts may be mentioned
those of A. Gordon, who published an Essay
(London, 1737) which was really the work of
190
THE
ROSETTA:.SFONE
GouGH, the antiquary; N. Fréret (Essaz sur
les Hiérvoglyphes, Paris, 1744); P.A.L. D’Origny
(L’Egypte Ancienne, Paris, 1762) ; C. de Gebelin
(Monde Primittf, Paris, 1775); J. H. Schumacher
(Versuch der dunkeln und versteckten Geheimnisse
naher aufzuklaren, Leipzig, 1754); J. G. Koch
(Tentamen enucleationts hieroglyphicorum, Petropolis, 1788); T. Ch. Tychsen (Ueber die Buchstabeninschrift der alten Aegypter, 1790); and P. E.
Jablonski, whose Opuscula were not published
in a complete form until 1804. Some scholars
published pictures of Egyptian monuments, with
comments
(see A. C. P. De Caylus, Dissertation
sur le Papyrus, Paris, 1758), but the “ explanations’’ of the hieroglyphs which
they gave
were merely the fruits of their imaginations and
guesses.
Among
the Egyptological books published
during the XVIIIth century there are a few in
which their authors showed that they really had
some idea of the nature and character of Egyptian
hieroglyphs.
Bishop Warburton (1698-1779),
in his Divine Legation of Moses (London, 1737-8),
proved by quotations from ancient authorities
that the hieroglyphs were not only employed to
conceal the religious dogmas of the Egyptians,
as KIRCHER had declared, and that they really
did represent the Egyptian language, and were
used by the Egyptians to record “their laws,
policies, public morals, history and, in a word, all
ATTEMPTS
TO DECIPHER
HIEROGLYPHS
191
kinds of civil matters ”’ (Essaz sur les Htéroglyphes,
Paris, 1741). C. L. J. de Guignes analysed a
number of groups of hieroglyphic characters, and
came to the conclusion that some of the signs were
determinatives, which resembled the “ keys’”’ or
“radicals ’’ in Chinese (Essat sur le moyen de
parventy ἃ la lecture et ἃ lVintelligence des Hiéroglyphes Egyptiens, Paris, 1770). G. Zoega wrote
a history of the obelisks in RoME, and added to
it extracts from ancient writers concerning them,
and a series of learned dissertations as to their
origin and signification (De origine et usu Obeliscorum, Rome, 1797). In the course of his study
of them he came to the conclusion that the oval
ring, with
a
bar
at
one
end
of it, C4,
which
we now call a “ cartouche,’”’ contained symbols
which represented either a name or a religious
formula!
ZOEGA was not. the first to suggest
that the cartouches on the obelisks contained
[royal] names, for J. J. BARTHELEMY had done so
(see his “ Explication d’un Bas-Relief Egyptien τ
in Mémotres
de l’Académe
des Inscriptions,
tom
XXXil, (1761), p.' 725; and in his “ Réflexions
générales’ in the Mémoires for 1763). But it is
possible that it was Zoega’s suggestion which
1 Zoega’s words are: ‘‘Conspiciuntur autem passim in
Aegyptiis monumentis schemata quaedam ovata sive elliptica
planae basi insidentia, quae emphatica ratione includunt certa
notarum syntagmata, sive ad propria personarum nomina
exprimenda sive ad sacratiores formulas designandas.”’
192
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
induced the early students of the hieroglyphs to
attempt to identify the names of PTOLEMY,
CLEOPATRA and BERENICE before any other words.
II.—THE
ATTEMPTS
EGYPTIAN
MADE
TO
HIEROGLYPHS
IN
DECIPHER
THE
THE
NINETEENTH
CENTURY
During the first quarter of the XI Xth century
many works on the Egyptian hieroglyphs appeared, and of these the following are of interest :
N. G. De Pahlin, Lettres sur les hiéroglyphes,
Weimar,
1802,
and
his
Essai,
Weimar,
1804;
J. von
Hammer-Purgstall,
Alphabets
and
Hieroglyphic Characters Explained, London, 1806 ;
A. Lenoir, Nouvelle Explication, 4 vols., Paris,
1809-21 ; and P. Lacour, Essai sur les Hiéro-
glyphes, Bordeaux, 1821. A certain interest in
Egyptology generally was stirred up by the prize
Essay of J. Bailey, Hzeroglyphicorum origo et
natura, Cambridge, 1816, but he only repeated
several of the old theories about hieroglyphs
which were made in the XVIIIth century, and
left the subject of the decipherment of them
untouched.
The writers of these books were men
of learning who spared themselves no trouble in
their endeavours to wrest the secrets of the
hieroglyphs from the inscriptions, but they all
failed to do so because they did not understand
their character and use. As they did not know
the phonetic values of the hieroglyphs, they could
ATTEMPTS
TO DECIPHER
HIEROGLYPHS
198
not identify the language which they expressed.
Moreover, they were unable even to identify
all the objects represented by the hieroglyphs,
for the simple reason that many of them are
conventionalized pictures of beings and things
animate and inanimate, of the nature and character
of which they were, naturally, ignorant. Even
to-day the objects which are represented by some of
the hieroglyphs are unknown tous.
The difficulty
that confronted the students of Egyptian hieroglyphs in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries
confronts Oriental archaeologists at the present
time, in respect of the so-called HITTITE inscriptions which have been brought from CARCHEMISH
and neighbouring sites to great European Museums.
These inscriptions are written with characters
resembling the hieroglyphs of EGypt, and in spite
of all the efforts made by distinguished scholars
cannot, in my opinion, be read and translated at
the present time.
What the Hittitologists are
waiting for is the discovery of a bilingual inscription in which one-half of it will be written in some
known language, say, Assyrian, or Phoenician, or
Hebrew.
I am not forgetting that it has often
been asserted that an object with a bilingual
inscription in Hittite and cuneiform characters
upon it has been discovered, and that the cuneiform
inscription upon it has been satisfactorily read.
But
whatever
clues it may have supplied, they
have been insufficient to enable scholars to read and
N
194
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
translate the “‘ Hittite’ hieroglyphic inscriptions
from CARCHEMISH, and HAMATH, and ALEPPO.!
IIIL—EARLY
ATTEMPTS
TO DECIPHER
THE
EGYPTIAN TEXT ON THE ROSETTA STONE
Curiously enough at the very time when
ZOEGA was writing and printing his book on
Egyptian obelisks, and was actually stating his
1 The object on which the bilingual ‘‘ Hittite ’’ and cuneiform inscription was found is described as a ‘‘ boss ’’ made of
silver. It was offered by a dealer for purchase to the keeper
of the Departments of Antiquities in the British Museum some
time before 1860, and was examined by Sir HENRY RAWLINSON
and Dr. Bircu.
Neither scholar believed in the genuineness
of the “ boss,” and the British Museum
declined to buy it ;
RAWLINSON believed the inscription to be a forgery, and
BircH regarded the object as a cast made from a hard stone
original. With characteristic foresight Mr. RoBERT READY
made an electrotype copy of the inscription, and took several
ATTEMPTS
TO DECIPHER
HIEROGLYPHS
195
belief that the ovals, 1.6. cartouches, on them
contained proper names, which, however, he was
unable to read because they were not accompanied by transcriptions of them in Greek, the
discovery of the RosETTA STONE took place. We
have already seen how NAPOLEON caused lithographers to make copies of the inscriptions on it,
how “ Citoyen’’ Du THEIL translated the Greek
wax impressions of it. The object was seen by Dr. A. D.
MORDTMANN, who published accounts of it in Mtinzstudien,
ili, 7, 8, 9, Leipzig, 1863, and in the Zeztschrift of the German
Oriental Society, vol. xxvi, 3, 4 (1872). When Professor
SAYCE restudied these articles in 1880 he came to the conclusion that the “‘ Hittite’ hieroglyphs in the centre of the
“boss ’’ were the equivalents of the cuneiform inscription
which ran round them, and that he had discovered the means
whereby the “ Hittite ’’ inscriptions might be read and
translated.
In his paper in the Transactions of the Society
of Biblical Archaeology (vol. vii, p. 294 f.) he transcribed the
cuneiform inscription on the “ boss ’’ thus :—
i
D.P. Tar
et
eee
ete
- nk - tim- me
Tarrik-timme,
eel
ie El
Sar
mat
Er - γιὲ - ὁ
king of the country of Ermé.
Dr. PINcHEs’ transcript reads :—
᾿Ξ
{τ
a
ona
ule
el
D.P. Tar - Ku - τ - tim- me
Sar mat Er- me - ὁ
Tarki-timme,
king of the land of Ermé.
Dr. PINCHES thinks that the forms of the characters are pure
Babylonian, possibly slightly modified by Assyrian influence,
but that the second (Tar), the third (£u), the fifth (tim, which
might equally well be mu), and the eleventh (6), are incorrect,
both from the Babylonian and Assyrian point of view (Proceedings Soc. Bibl. Arch., 1885, p. 124).
And he would
N2
196
THE
text, and how
ROSEDTA
the Rev.
STONE
STEPHEN
WESTON
read
his translation, which was made from the copy of
the Stone, published by the Society of Antiquaries
of London,! before the Society on July 8, 1802
(see above, p. 33).
translate the cuneiform part of the inscription ‘‘ Tarki-timme,
king of the land of the city of water.’”” It was the irregularities in the writing which Dr. PINcHEs has pointed out that
bothered RAWLINSON in the last century.
MORDTMANN
compared the name of Tarki-timme with that of the Cilician
king Tarkondimotos, and Sayce with Tarkondémos, but
where and when Tarkt-timme reigned cannot be said. The
inscription on the “ boss’ here given is made from a silver
electrotype given to me by the late Sir WoOLLASTON FRANKS,
K.C.B., on his retirement from the British Museum.
I make
no attempt
on the
to describe
the “ Hittite’
hieroglyphs
“ boss,’’ about which so much has been said and written, for
I lack the necessary knowledge.
They have been treated at
length by all those who have formulated systems of “ Hittite τ᾿
decipherment, viz., the Rev. C. J. Batt, Dr. R. CAMPBELL
THompson, Colonel CoNDER, Dr. CowLEy, Dr. JENSEN, M.
MENANT,
Dr.
PEISER
and
others,
and
for
their
works
the
reader is referred to ἃ. CONTENAU’S Elements de Bibliographte
Hittite, Paris, 1922, an indispensable work for all students of
Hittitology.
1 The drawings and engravings were the work of JAMES
BasIRE.
The descriptive title read :—‘‘ Has tabulas (v, VI,
vil) inscriptionem sacris A‘gyptiorum et vulgaribus literis
itemque Graecis in lapide nigro ac praeduro insculptam
exhibentis ad formam et modulum exemplaris inter spolia ex
bello A®gyptiaco nuper reportati et in Museo Britannico
asservati suo sumptu incidendas curant Soc : Antiquar :
Londini: A.D. Mpcccill.”’
London, 1815.
See also Vetusta Mcnumenta, vol. iv,
ATTEMPTS
TO DECIPHER
HIEROGLYPHS
197
A general description of the work done on the
Greek and Demotic versions of the Decree of
Memphis engraved on the Rosetta STONE will be
found on pp. 49f. and 76 f., and we therefore pass
on to describe the attempts made to decipher the
Egyptian hieroglyphs in the years immediately
following the discovery of the Stone. The earliest
of these appeared in the works of M. le Comte Nits
GusTaF de Pahlin, who in 1802 published his
Lettres sur les Htéroglyphes (Weimar, with plates),
and in 1804 his Essaz sur les Hiéroglyphes (Weimar,
with 24 inscriptions), and an Analyse de linscription en Hréroglyphes du Monument trouvé ἃ Rosette
(Weimar, with a facsimile of the hieroglyphic text
on the RosETTA STONE).
DE PAHLIN thought
that the Chinese and Egyptian hieroglyphs were
identical in origin and meaning, and, according
to YOUNG, he thought that if the Psalms of David
were
translated into Chinese,
and they were
then
written in the ancient character of that language,
the inscriptions on Egyptian papyri would be
reproduced.
It is easy to see now that if
DE PAHLIN had studied the “ Lettres ’’ which
De Sacy and AKERBLAD had published on the
Demotic
version
on
the Stone,
and
followed
in
their steps, he might have seen that some of the
Egyptian hieroglyphs were alphabetic, and so
might have deciphered the proper names.
The
mistake he made was in following the dicta of
KIRCHER and JABLONSKI.
DE PAHLIN was an
198
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
honest enthusiast, and even the learned were led
astray by his apt and specious arguments ; but
the truth is that, like others, he never understood
the problem which he undertook to solve. Many
accepted DE PAHLIN’s fantastic translations, and
even so sound a scholar as AKERBLAD was inclined
to regard them as correct.
During the twelve years which followed the
publication of DE Sacy’s Lettre au Citoyen Chaptal
au sujet de V inscription Egyptienne du monument
trouvé ἃ Rosette, Paris, An X [1802 v. st.], no real
progress appears to have been made in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Much was
written and said about them by the faddists and
cranks, who were usually wholly uneducated men,
and whose one idea was to prove that the Egyptian
inscriptions were extracts from the Bible.
One
of them went so far as to declare that the inscription over the portico of the temple of DENDERAH
was the CXIXth Psalm!
The first really successful attempt to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs was
made by Dr. Thomas Young, F.R.S., in 1814.
(Plate VII.)
IV.—THOMAS
YOUNG
AND
HIS
WORK
Thomas Young was born at MILVERTON in
SOMERSETSHIRE on June 13, 1773. He is said to
have been able to read fluently at the age of two,
and before he was twenty years old he had studied
French,
Italian,
Latin,
Greek,
Hebrew,
Syriac,
PEALE
Thomas Young, M.D.
Born June 13, 1773.
Died May 10, 1830.
To fuce ἢ. 198.)
Ville
THOMAS
Chaldee,
YOUNG
Samaritan,
AND
Arabic,
HIS
WORK
Persian,
199
Turkish,
and Ethiopic, to say nothing of Philosophy,
Botany and Entomology.
In 1793 he entered
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital as a student; in
1801 he discovered the undulatory theory of
light ; in 1802 he became Foreign Secretary to the
Royal Society, and in 1804 he was elected a
Fellow ; in 1814 he began to study the inscriptions
on
the
ROSETTA
STONE,
and
four
years
later
published his epoch-making articles on Egyptian
hieroglyphs in the Enclopaedia Britannica; in
1818 he was appointed Secretary of the Board of
Longitude, and Superintendent of the Nautical
Almanac ; and in 1826 he was elected one of the
eight foreign Associates of the Academy of Paris.
He died on May το, 1830, at the comparatively
early age of sixty-seven.
(For further details of
his life and studies see G. PEAcock, The Life of
Thomas
Young,
London,
1853.)
The above facts
will give the reader an idea of the great and varied
abilities
of
this
remarkable
man,
and
of
the
extent of his linguistic and scientific knowledge.
It is clear that he was a physicist before everything else; he was only drawn to the study of
Egyptian hieroglyphs by accident, as we shall
now see.
Whilst his friend Sir W. RousE
BOuUGHTON was travelling in Egypt, he purchased
at Luxor a papyrus written in cursive Egyptian
characters.
This papyrus was broken during its
transport to England, and its purchaser submitted
200
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
the fragments, or copies of them, to YOUNG in the
spring of 1814. Why he did this is not clear, for,
as far as I know,
YounG
did not occupy himself
with the study of Egyptian writing in any form
before 1814. BouGuton published a Letter respecting Egyptian Antiquities, with five plates,
London
(Parker), 1814, and YouNG
wrote a short
article on the papyrus fragments, which was
published, with an article by BOUGHTON entitled
“Antiquities of Egypt,’ in Archaeologia, vol.
Xvili (1817), p. 59. YOUNG’S paper, entitled
“Remarks
on the Ancient Egyptian Manuscripts,’’ was read on May 19, 1814, and was first
published in the Museum Criticism, pt. vi, p. 15 ;
it was reprinted by LeITcu in The Works of Thomas
Young, vol. 111, Ὁ. I f.
YounG himself tells us that, having provided
himself with a copy of AKERBLAD’s “ Lettre” to
DE Sacy, and a copy of the Rosetta Stone, published by the Society of Antiquaries of London
(see above, p. 196), he went to WORTHING in the
summer of 1814 and then proceeded to work on
the three scripts of the famous
Decree
of
Mempuis.
DE Sacy claimed in his Lettre au
Citoyen Chaptal (Paris, an X = A.D. 1802), that
he had identified in the Demotic version the
groups of characters which expressed the names
of ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ,
ALEXANDER
and ALEXANDRIA,
and
the Swedish scholar J. D. AKERBLAD told DE Sacy
(Lettre
sur
U'Inscription
Egyptienne
de Rosette,
THOMAS
YOUNG
AND
HIS
WORK
201
Paris, an X = A.D. 1802) that he had discovered
the groups of characters which represented sixteen
other names and words in the same inscription.
He also drew up an alphabet, which was generally
applicable to proper names, and to them only.
But neither DE Sacy nor AKERBLAD was able to
make further progress, and in the following years
they contented themselves with watching other
scholars attempting to decipher the Egyptian
hieroglyphs, and in criticising their efforts. YOUNG
availed himself of the results obtained by DE
Sacy and AKERBLAD, and then began to try to
translate the texts for himself.
He first cut up
his copy of the Demotic text into pieces, line by
line, and pasted them on sheets of paper, and over
each group of signs forming a word he pasted
what he believed to be the equivalent of them
from the Greek text. Then he treated the hieroglyphic text in the same way, but here a serious
difficulty met him, for a very large portion of the
hieroglyphic version was wanting.
He certainly
succeeded in identifying some of the groups of
signs in the Demotic version, just as AKERBLAD
had done, but he could not read either the Demotic
or the hieroglyphic versions, because he did not
realize that some of the characters were used as
ideographs, and that some had SYLLABIC and
others ALPHABETIC values.
At this stage of his
work he failed, as DE Sacy and AKERBLAD had
done, and, to tell the truth, his translations, both
202
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
of the Demotic and hieroglyphic text, were based
on guesswork.
But somewhere about this time (1815-16)
YouNG came to the conclusion that if a foreign
conqueror of a certain country caused inscriptions
commemorating his conquest to be drawn up in the
native language of that country, and that language
was written with pictorial characters similar to
the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the scribes would, in
writing the conqueror’s name, make use of the
PHONETIC values of a number of pictorial characters without any regard for the actual meanings
of these characters as pictures.
YounG thought that he was the first to arrive
at this conclusion, for he says, in enumerating the
various points of his discovery, “‘ As far as I have
ever heard or read, not one of the particulars had
ever been established and placed on record by
any other person, dead or alive.’’ But, as a matter
of fact, the
BARTHELEMY
same idea had occurred both
and ZOEGA, a fact which seems
to
to
show that YOUNG was unacquainted with the
works of two of the ablest and most sensible of
the early students of Egyptology.
Moreover, as
YOUNG was a friend of DE Sacy and corresponded
with
him,
it is difficult
to think
that
he
was
ignorant of the fact that GROTEFEND had partially
succeeded in deciphering the names of some of the
Persian kings in the great inscription of Darius I
at BaAHISTUN by deducing the values of the
Vil:
BEATE
Fapheeuhaddirigite saree
SAT Seu
Bene ACI De eke
Ὁ-2asas
at
6
Ὁ
wb OY
be
Sane ak
0A
α [,Ὁ
ὥρμ
ἰν
ἢ τῇ
Sea
Se,
τς
Aeeh
pie
Gog
ῳ
Oe
BEE
4 Og FE
Big
5 BB&S
Ὁ 2'%
_
ieee
Pon
PSἡ
mo
ON
Spa
(Oi
SO
ky
hoo
ad
aoe
~o
= & 2Ὁ
ma
BRS
ΕΡ
ἘΌΞ
Bids
-
.no
2H do
Soe2 o
OBL
Aw
w
8M
Hma ὦ
SES
9.
προ
9.5. aot
ὩΣ
bsΕPowo sk ἘΣ3
as
Bog ἘΠΕΡΕDetae
att
ΚΟ
2D ΕΝ
oes
THOMAS
YOUNG
AND
HIS
WORK
203
cuneiform signs from the forms of the royal names
found
in Zend and
Pehlevi.
We
know, too, as
a fact that Mr. J. W. BANKEs, the discoverer of
the obelisk set up at PHILAE by ProLtemy IX,
had furnished him with a copy of the bilingual
inscription in Egyptian hieroglyphs and Greek
which was inscribed upon it.
Having concluded that the phonetic values of
some of the hieroglyphs might be obtained from
the cartouches, YOUNG began to work on the
name of PTOLEMy, IITOAEMAIOZ.
Mr. J. W.
BANKES had already identified the cartouches of
PTOLEMY and CLEOPATRA on the propylaeum of
DIOSPOLIS PARVA, and on the obelisk which he dis-
covered at PHILAE (Plates VIII and XIV), though
he was unable to read the characters in them.
Now, the name of PTOLEMyY is mentioned many
times in the Greek version of the Decree
ROSETTA STONE;
on the
we find it some thirteen times in
the Demotic version, but only four times, in a
complete form, in the hieroglyphic text. In line 6
of the hieroglyphic text we have the name of
PTOLEMY written in a cartouche, thus :
= (2A= up)
and
in the same
line and in line 14 we find
written, with additions, thus :—
2 CAZWIT DRM
it
204
THE,
In the
written
ROSETTAISTIONE
Demotic text the name of PTOLEMY is
in one or other of the three forms here
given.
(<<nz2-PZE> Q
fyi 21) ὦ
(52:5) (2
[KOR
YounGc argued that any one of the three
Demotic forms might be the equivalent of the
hieroglyphic form No. 1, and that the hieroglyphic
form No. 2 must contain titles of ProLemy.
He
accepted ZorEGA’s view that the cartouche must
contain a royal name, and he assumed that
only the beginning and end of the cartouche,
( and
: were
sides
6ΘΆ being.
that
the
name
the cartouche,
written
omitted.
began
and
by P, the second
by OLE,
in Demotic,
at
He
the
the
parallel
also
assumed
rounded
end
of
he transcribed
the first sign
by T, the third
and fourth
the fifth by M, the sixth and seventh
by I, and the eighth by OS or OSH.
We now
know that he should have transcribed 4) by U,
2x
by L, and | by S, but in spite of these in-
accuracies credit is due to him for assigning correct
THOMAS
YOUNG
AND
HIS
WORK
205
PHONETIC VALUES to most of the signs in the
hieroglyphic form of the name of PToLEmy.
And in doing this he actually proved that some of
the hieroglyphs had ALPHABETIC VALUES, which no
one before him had ever done, though BARTHELEMY, DE GUIGNES, ZOEGA and Professor VATER
had suspected their existence; in fact, YOUNG
was the first to decipher any Egyptian hieroglyph
correctly.
His attempt to decipher the name of
BERENICE
was not so successful, but even in that
he had a certain measure of success, for he assigned
the correct value of N to~~.
To sum up: Out
of a total of thirteen signs, he assigned correct
values
and
xs,
to
a;
ὃς
six,
namely,
ἢ, wn,
partly
correct
values
to three, namely,
and
|!,
wrong ξ
values
namely, <>,
and
ὙΠ} &
and if
ἢ,
to
ἅς
four,
Some may say
that the phonetic values given by YOuNG to
the hieroglyphs in the name of PTOLEMY were
the result of lucky guesses, and the same may be
said of the values which GROTEFEND assigned to
the cuneiform characters of which the name of
DARIUS was composed ; but in each case several
of the values were subsequently found to be
correct.
As the result of his work at this stage
Younc concluded that “ hieroglyphic inscriptions
were to be read in the direction in which the
characters
faced,’
a
statement
which
will
be
206
easily
ἢ ᾧ
ΤΉΝ
ROSETTASSIONE
understood
Ss
wm.
<>
the chicken
from the
In these
following
the reed
words:
IF and
“=
to
Lule
Ny and
the
bird
face
the
left, but in reading them the reader must
begin with the reed
and read towards the
right.
YOUNG continued to work at the decipherment
of Egyptian hieroglyphs during the years 1816-18,
and though he failed to see that neither the
Demotic nor hieroglyphic texts on the ROSETTA
STONE were literal translations of the original
Greek
version
of
the
Decree,
he
discovered
many small points which were of considerable
interest and importance.
He studied the Coptic
version of several Books of the Old and New
Testaments,
for he was
well
aware
of the close
affinity which existed between the language of
the Demotic text and Coptic, and he drew up
an alphabet of Demotic, and added to it what
he believed to be the Coptic equivalents of the
signs. (Plate IX.)
Soon after YouNG had made his translations of
the text on the ROSETTA
STONE, the editor of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica asked him to prepare
the article Ecypr for the new edition. When
written, the article filled 38 pages quarto, and
was accompanied by five plates, with lists containing 218 words, and ‘“‘a supposed enchorial
alphabet,’’
and
“specimens
of
phrases.’’
The
TPAD NINE, DSS,
-“΄--ς-
UL MESORE
MEcapy
ΡΩΝ
=[n=
ASog
Wi EMS DAY
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ao pe uel
.
9
ἌΜΑ THOUSAND
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13]
SO
λ
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9
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305,TRIRTEETI
τον ΔΑΝ
Ss
Ὁ Ρ
SRLDYN
ὙΠ]
3
{ΠῚ}
Z
NUMBERS
SOLSERERAL
:
ee
W6.ONE
ΟΥ̓Δ, OFT
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=
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A facsimile of a page of Dr. Young’s word-list, with hieroglyphic
and Demotic alphabets.
(From the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
Supplement, Vol. IV, London, 1818.)
To face p. 206.)
Le
i
aNat"
a
|
THOMAS
YOUNG
article was divided
dealt with—
into
AND
HIS
eight
WORK
207
sections,
which
I.—Recent publications on Egypt.
IJ.—The Pantheon of Egypt.
IlI.—The Historiography of Egypt.
IV.—The Egyptian Calendar.
V.—Manners and Customs.
VI.—Analysis of the triple inscription on the
ROSETTA STONE.
VII.—Rudiments
ulary.
of a Hieroglyphic Vocab-
VIII.—The General Characters and Subjects
of the Egyptian Monuments.
The article was printed in Part I of Vol. IV of
the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
and
was
published
in 1819.
It is the
most
important of YounG’s philological works, and is,
practically, the foundation of the science of
Egyptology, because in it he shows (I) the
“ original identity of the enchorial [1.6. Demotic]
with the sacred characters [t.e. hieroglyphs] ; ”’
and (II) because he gave in it a number of “ alphabetical Egyptian characters, to which, in most
cases, he had assigned correct phonetic values.”’
The method which he followed was the correct
one, for it established the ‘‘ phonetic principle,”
and,
as
CHABAS
rightly
said,
“‘ Cette
idée
fut,
208
dans
THE
la
realité,
ROSETTA
le Fiat
STONE
Lux
de
la science’
,
(Inscription de Rosette, p. 5). YOUNG was perfectly conscious of the fact that the Egyptian
hieroglyphic
text
contained
many
more
letters than those to which he had assigned
correct values, and he himself says that a
“continued application of the same method to
other monuments” would have resulted in the
recovery of the whole alphabet.
It is impossible
not to ask why, since he felt this with such
certainty, he did not continue the application
of his method to the cartouches of the Persian
kings of Egypt, and those of the Roman CAESARS?
His great rival CHAMPOLLION claimed in 1822
that he was the first to identify the cartouche
of CLEOPATRA, but this had already been done by
Mr. J. W. BANKES in 1816. Had Younc studied
the variant forms of the cartouche he could have
read most of the hieroglyphics in it without
difficulty. And had he noted the form of the
name of BERENICE
II ( J ἬΝ Ad B {τ =)
he would have read it correctly, for he knew all
the hieroglyphs in it except BS.
An examination of the five plates which accompanied Youne’s article in the Supplement in the
Encyclopaedia Britannica shows that he did more
than discover the values of the alphabetic hieroglyphs in the name of PTOoLEMy.
He showed that
the numerals were expressed by strokes, | = 1,
THOMAS
i=
2, l=
and
that
knew
YOUNG
AND
3, WN = 4, and
N=
WORK
so on
10, © = 100,
too that
HIS
209
up to i =" G;
and i == 1000.
the sign e=\ was
placed
“He
before
ordinal numbers, thus “7\ = first, “\;\ = second,
and “,\ = third, and he deduced
the value of
e=\ from the Coptic 22a9,.
Plurals were formed
by repeating the hieroglyph three times, or by
writing three strokes after a hieroglyph, thus
1=
god, an
marked
the
or 1! =
feminine,
gods;
6.9. 7
the
signs
= goddess.
a
He
identified the names
of the gods and goddesses,
ee6
NEPHTHYS,
IsIs,
ἧῷ
ἯιA
APIS,
ie
IN
ANUBIS,
HATHOR,
=i
PTAH,
Tuotu, “7 Osiris, αὶ RA, etc., though,
aN
of course
he only knew
their names.
nomens
ΘΕΤῚ
the Coptic
He identified
of AMENHETEP
1 ( oy eee)
III
forms
of
correctly
the pre-
( Θ ¥ yg
|
, though
he
could
not
read the hieroglyphs.
In some cartouches of
ProLemy two of the king’s honorific titles follow
the name, thus :—
210
THE
The
original
AIQNOBIOY
ROSETTA
Greek
STONE
text
is NTOAEMAIOY
HFANHMENCY
ὙΠῸ
TOY
0A
“ ProLemy, the everliving, the beloved of PTAH.”
YouncG had no difficulty in finding the name of
Prau, for the first two letters of it, 9 Pt, begin
the name of ProLEemy ; this done, it followed that
had a phonetic value something like H. His
dictionary told him that the Coptic word for “ to
love’? was
2£xEp mer, or 2xxep! mert;
he therefore
gave to R the value of mer, and he already knew
that Ql =I.
For the interpretation of the other
title
“everliving,’
heel
Coptic,
in which
ordinary
word
language
for
“life,”
he
had
recourse
to
he
found
that
the
“living,”
etc.,
was
onk ong,, and the common word for “ ever ᾿᾿ was
eneR
ees,
meaning
Therefore
of “living,”
and
he
to
gave
to
i
5) the meaning
---
of “ever.”
The
Coptic led him astray,
the reading
of the last word, for he assigned
value of ene to ae
the
as to
the
This was one of his worst
mistakes.
The evidence supplied by the section of YouNG’s
article in the Supplement entitled ‘‘ Rudiments of
a Hieroglyphical Vocabulary ”’ shows that he had
made out the correct meaning of many words in
the hieroglyphic text on the RosEttra STONE,
though he was unable to transliterate them.
The
THOMAS
YOUNG
AND
HIS
WORK
211
Coptic words which he adds are not always the
correct equivalents of the words in hieroglyphs.
Examples of these are :—
CoPpTIc.
strength
XORK
stability
Taxpo
condition, office
priest, libationer
good, beautiful
name
paint
saviour, deliverer
ECONOL ERK
stand, set up
©
ζει
i
and
οτορ,
with, together
πελϑ.
over, upon
exw
day
E2,00%
month
2807;
year
pore tle
gold
tow R
image
CLLOT
02
THE,
τὸ bo
ROSETLA
STONE
crown of the Upper Country
δ
crown of the Lower Country
Ἧ
shrine
᾿ and WA
king
᾿ is᾿
temples
Y/
of
ING
in, from
The more the work of YouNG 15 studied the clearer
it becomes that he never realized the fact that
the Decree of the priests inscribed on the RosETTA
STONE was originally written in Greek, and
that some parts of the Demotic and hieroglyphic
versions were paraphrases and not literal trans-
lations.
Thus the Greek word for ‘‘ Egyptians ”’
is rendered in hieroglyphs Ὁ “ those who [dwell]
in Ta-Mer-t ”’ YK
-- Ee and in Demotic
by rmt km
“men
of Egypt.”
The Greek word
for king is rendered by Pr-da at
1.6. Pharaoh in
the Demotic
in the
text,
and
by τις
hiero-
glyphic text (1.5). The meaning is substantially
the same, but, strictly speaking, t = King of the
South,
and
Zz =
King
of the
North.
The
THOMAS
YOUNG
AND
HIS
WORK
213
correct reading of Ἰμ nesu bat was only discovered a few years ago. The title EPIPHANES
is rendered in the Demotic text by ntr pr, and
in the hieroglyphic by |= ny pri, i.e. “ the
god who appeareth.””
The Demotic rendering
of εὐχαρίστῳ (1. 36) is nti na-an tai-f mt-nfr-t
“he whose goodness is splendid,’ and the
hieroglyphic is eel
neb neferu “lord of
good [deeds].’”’ In some cases the Demotic and
hieroglyphic renderings of the Greek are bald
and
insufficient,
6.5. ὁ κυριώτατος
Θεὸς Tov
ἱερόν
“the most important god of the temple”’ is
rendered by fa ntr ta nu-t “ the god of the city”’
in the Demotic, and by | J τ nty nu-t “ god of
the
city’’
ἐν τῶ
in hieroglyphs.
ἐπιφανεστάτῳ
τόπῳ
The
are
renderings
interesting;
of
the
Demotic has (")ὺὴ pa maa nti Onh n pa arpr
“in
the place which is prominent in the temple,’’ but
ξ
.
a1
| wm
cs
the hieroglyphic text has <= aT aot, Ἵ an
“in the hall of the soldiers of the house of the
god.”
“Queen Arsinoé,” βασιλίσσης ᾿Αρσινόης
is rendered
in the Demotic
Pr-da-t Arsina,
‘Pharaoh
(fem.) Arsina,’’ and in hieroglyphs by
-
al
ee
πὸ SNS8 ““ Governess,
Lady of the
aaa Lands, Arsina.”’
The dates of the festivals cannot have been
understood by the first students of the ROSETTA
214
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
STONE, for the Egyptians divided their year into
three seasons, each containing fourmonths.
The
Greek text ordering the five-day festival in the
month of THotu (1. 49) is rendered in Demotic
thi ak ssu I shaz hru V and in _ hieroglyphs
Tay of
Lat Θ ifa =
ἧ Hill,
“πο
athe
first day of the first month of the season Akhat
until the fifth day.”
These few examples will be sufficient to indicate
the difficulties which the Egyptian scribes encountered in translating the Greek text of the
Decree into Demotic and hieroglyphs, and they
help to show why the translations of DE Sacy,
AKERBLAD and Younc were little more than
guesswork.
And we may note, too, that there is
no evidence in their translations that they
recognized the fact that the Demotic text contained passages for which there are no equivalents
in the Greek.
This is specially noticeable in the
account of ProLeMy’s attack on LyYKOPOLIS.
The Demotic text (ll. 13 and 14) says of the rebels,
au-u haa pa mit n pa ash-skn n Pr-aa arm pa
ash-shn [n-na]niru, “‘ they had forsaken the path
of the command of PHARAOH and the command
of the gods,”’ but the Greek for this passage is
wanting.
the
The Nubayrah
equivalent
ἀν δὰ Ὁ
of
the
Stele (1. 21) gives as
Demotic
=
ΞΡ
i NAAN
THOMAS
YOUNG
AND
HIS
WORK
219
had invaded the path beloved of His Majesty, and
the ordinances of the gods.”’ Referring to the great
and costly military works which ProLEMy had
carried out for the protection of Egypt, the
Demotic text says,
bn rkh na Pr-aau hatiu ar-s
m-kd-s, ““ former kings did not know how to do the
like of this,’ but the Greek for this passage is
also wanting.
The hieroglyphic text renders this
passage
by
ae co ἜΣ oe ΠΝ
Chae
“former kings had never done the like.”
The
reader who will take the trouble to compare
carefully the versions of the Decree of MEMPHIS
on the ROSETTA STONE will find in the Greek
version many words the meanings of which
were not clearly understood by the scribes who
drafted the Demotic and hieroglyphic texts;
this being so, it is not-a matter to wonder
greatly at that the early Egyptologists failed to
decipher the Egyptian texts on the ROSETTA
STONE.
In the preceding paragraphs I have tried to
show where YOUNG succeeded in his attempts to
decipher the Egyptian inscriptions and where he
failed.
We must remember that he was a
physicist and not a phuilologist, and that his
knowledge of any Oriental language was not
profound.
After the publication of his article
Ecypt in the Encyclopaedia Britannica he abandoned the study of hieroglyphs, most probably
216
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
because he felt he was not equipped with adequate
philological knowledge to continue the study
successfully. Whether this be so or not matters
little. The important fact to remember is that
by his decipherment of the name of PTOLEMy he
opened the door of a chamber of philological
mystery, and indicated the path to be followed
by those who entered the chamber.
We may now
consider the labour of CHAMPOLLION, who was one
of the first to realize and to make use of YOUNG’S
discoveries, which he developed with extraordinary
ability and success.
V.—JEAN
FRANCOIS
CHAMPOLLION
AND
HIS
WORK
JEAN
FRANCOIS CHAMPOLLION
(Plate X),
surnamed “1,6 Jeune,” to distinguish him from
his brother
CHAMPOLLION-FIGEAC,
was
born
at
Ficgac on December 23 (or, 24), 1790, and died
on March 4, 1832. When still a boy he made
rapid progress in classical studies, and though
he devoted much time to the study of botany
and mineralogy, his chief interest was centred
in Oriental languages.
At the age of thirteen
he is said to have possessed a fair knowledge
of Hebrew,
Syriac and Chaldee.
In 1805
CHAMPOLLION-FIGEAC
took
him
to
Paris,
and
obtained admission for him to the School of
Oriental Languages, and introduced him to Dr
Sacy. Soon after his arrival in Paris he began
PLATE
Jean Francois Champollion, surnamed “ Le Jeune.”
Born at Figeac, December 24,1790.
Died March 4, 1832.
To face p. 216.)
X.
CHAMPOLLION
AND
HIS
WORK
217
to study the inscriptions on the RosETTA STONE,
and in writing to CHAMPOLLION-FIGEAC on the
subject DE Sacy said, ““Je ne pense pas 41}
doive s’attacher au dechiffrement de l’smscription
de
Rosette.
Le
succés,
dans
ces
sortes
de
re-
cherches est plutéot lV’effet d’une heureuse combinaison de circonstances que celui d’un travail
opiniatre, qui met quelquefois dans le cas de
prendre des illusions pour des réalités’’ (AIME
CHAMPOLLION-FicEac,
Les Deux
Champollion,
leur vie et leurs euvres,
Grenoble,
1887, p. 155).
In 1812 CHAMPOLLION became Professor of Ancient
History in the Faculty of Letters at GRENOBLE,
and he continued to prosecute his Oriental studies.
Later, when he came
to Paris, he found that the
students of hieroglyphs were still wedded to the
view that they formed a symbolic language ; in
attempting to verify this fact he wasted a whole
year, for he found it impossible to come to a
decision on the subject.
About this time (1812-13) CHAMPOLLION began
to contemplate the publication of an encyclopaedic
work on Egypt in several volumes.
He intended
it to treat of :—(1) Geography;
(2) Religion;
(3) Language; (4) The Writing and History of
Ecyrt up to the Invasion of CamBysEs.
He
computed that the undertaking would occupy
fifty years! A sort of specimen of the proposed
publication appeared at GRENOBLE in 1811 with
the title of ‘‘ Introduction,” but only thirty copies
218
THE
ROSETDAS
STONE
of it were printed, and none of them were sold to
the trade.
The first part of the great work,
which dealt with the Geography of EGypT, was
entitled L’Egypte sous les Pharaons ; it appeared
at PARIS in two volumes in 1814. These were
presented to the king, to whom the whole work
was
to be dedicated,
published.
but no further
section
was
In the Preface, CHAMPOLLION speaks
of the reading of Egyptian MSS., and he goes on
to say that the first and easiest step to be taken
with a view of arriving at a satisfactory rendering
of such MSS. is the “reading
of the Egyptian
text (by which he probably meant the enchorial,
or Demotic version) of the inscription of ROSETTA.
I have had the happiness to see my efforts crowned
with an almost complete success ; several passages
in the Egyptian text are quoted in the two volumes
which I now publish (p. xvii)... . The results
which I have obtained ought equally to apply to
the reading of the alphabetic MSS.;
my first
impressions do not permit me to have any doubt
on this subject (p. xviii).’’ The reader who will
take the trouble to examine the references to the
Demotic text on the RosETTA STONE which are
given by CHAMPOLLION in this work will find that
his knowledge of the text was not in advance of
that
of AKERBLAD
and
DE
Sacy,
a fact which
need not surprise us.
In 1821 CHAMPOLLION published his work De
l’écriture Hiératique des Anciens Egyptiens at
CHAMPOLLION
GRENOBLE.
In
it he
AND
refers
HIS
WORK
to
219
BARTHELEMY,
ZOEGA and DE HUMBOLDT, all of whom agreed
that Egyptian writing was ALPHABETIC, that is
to say, that it was composed of signs which were
intended to recall the sounds of the spoken
language, and then goes on to say, “‘ A long study,
and,
above
all, an
attentive
comparison
of the
hieroglyphic texts with those of the second kind,
which are regarded as alphabetic, has led us to a
contrary conclusion.’’
He then states :—
1. The writing of the Egyptian MSS. of the
second kind (hieratic) is not alphabetic.
2. The second system is only a simple modification of the hieroglyphic system, and differs
merely through the form of the signs. This
kind of writing is that called “ hieratic ’’ by the
Greek
writers,
and
must
be
considered
hieroglyphic tachygraphy.
3. Finally, the hieratic characters
of things and not signs of sounds.
as
are signs
[The italics
are mine. |
Statement No. 3 proves beyond all doubt that
when CHAMPOLLION wrote the work in question
he did not only not believe in the alphabetic
character of any of the Egyptian signs, but also
that he never suspected the possibility of such a
thing.
On September 17, 1822, CHAMPOLLION read his
Mémoire on the hieroglyphs, and exhibited his
220
DAE,
ROSETTA
STONE
“ Hieroglyphic Alphabet,” with its Greek and
Demotic equivalents, before the Académie des
Inscriptions ; this paper created a great sensation
among the learned throughout Europe, and stirred
up much interest in Egyptology generally.
In
the same year he published his “ Lettve @
M. Dacier, relative ἃ l’alphabet des Htéroglyphes
phonétiques employés par les Egyptiens pour inscrire
sur
leurs
monuments
les titres, les
noms,
et les
surnoms des souverains grecs et romains (Paris,
1822, avec, 4. planches).,
his ~ Letters ssa
well and carefully written pamphlet of 52 pp., in
which the author, following on the path already
indicated by YounGc, and making use of the
alphabetic values of the hieroglyphic signs which
occur
in the names
of PTOLEMY
and
BERENICE,
which YOUNG discovered in 1818, and publistred
in 1819, successfully deciphered the names of
several other Greek and Roman rulers of Egypt
and their titles. On p. 5 CHAMPOLLION gives a
description of the three classes of Egyptian
writing, hieratic, Demotic and hieroglyphic, and
in it we find the following :—“‘ lettre troisiéme
espéce d’écriture, l’hiéroglyphique pure, devait
avoir aussi un certain nombre de ses signes doués
de la faculté d’exprimer les sons; en un mot,
qu il existait également une série d’hiéroglyphes
phonétiques.”’
Now this statement shows that towards the
close of the year 1822 CHAMPOLLION held an
CHAMPOLLION
AND
HIS
WORK
221
opinion diametrically opposed to that which he
had held in 1821, for up to 1821 he did not believe
that Egyptian hieroglyphs could possess alphabetic
values.
This being so, students of the history of
the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphs
naturally ask, ‘“‘ What was it that made CHAMPOLLION change his opinion, and adopt in 1822
a theory which he had rejected wholly in 1821 ? ”’
Judging by the facts derived from the extracts
from the letters of YouNG, DE Sacy and AKERBLAD
(written in 1814 and 1815), and are printed by
LEITCH in vol. 111 of his edition of The Works of
Thomas
Young, London,
1865, CHAMPOLLION
changed his opinion because he had either read!
or had had read or explained to him, the system
of decipherment which had been initiated by
YouncG and was described by him in his article
Ecypt in the Supplement. to the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, and in earlier works.
We may now describe briefly how CHAMPOLLION,
following YOUNG’s method, discovered the phonetic values of other letters of the hieroglyphic
1 YounG had corresponded with CHAMPOLLION-FIGEAC, as
we may see from DE Sacy’s letter to YounG dated July 20,
1815 :—‘‘ Monsieur,—Outre
la traduction
Latine de l’inscrip-
tion Egyptienne que vous m’avez communiquée, j’ai recu
postérieurement une autre traduction Anglaise imprimée, que
je n’ai pas en ce moment sous les yeux, l’ayant prétée ἃ M.
Champollion sur la demande que son frére m’en a faite d’aprés
une lettre qu'il m’a dit avotr regu de vous.’ [The italics are
mine.]
222
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
alphabet.
Among the royal names and
which he studied were the following :—
name
of Cleopatra.
YOuNG
Obelisk made
contained the
had shown
eee
ΕἸ =
R, and that Ἂ was always added
at the end of a female
two letters of unknown
proper
name.
The
value were 4 and <=,
and their position in the cartouche
that they must aa K and T.
ῃ
2. PHILIP - ne
ex
ae
| o£)
cals
a
in
ΞO
.—The
these
showed
πὴ Ὶ
two
and as CHAMPOLLION
cartouches
3. PToLeMy.—The
name
of PTOLEMY
f=
letters
guessed
letter ©, it followed
an
letters of
ὦ! and fd, but it was clear that 4 must
Greek
that
eUa
P, <=
(om
7--
τὰςς
γι Creoratra ( ὡς gR f=
The Greek text of the Philae
it certain that this cartouche
titles
that
that
variant
were
=
| S,
A =the
ΠῚ =
H.
forms
of
the
showed
that
q=»=a
T,
value
here
are
e U.
of
unknown
], τ---
CHAMPOLLION
and
—+,
but
Alexandros
----
the
shows
AND
HIS
WORK
Greek
form
that
= A, =>
223
of the
=
name
K, and
-- 9,
5. BERENICE
J ees ἡ iB S m=
this cartouche
the unknown signs were J and
Zs, but the Greek form of the name shows that
J ΞΞΒ
aNd
eeehe:
that
proves
ὃ
He Be
XY
evatiant,
form
ἃς =
Β,
πόλλ
᾿
oe
and
6. AUTOCRATOR
(
ΞΞ
ΞΞῚΣ
NZA
CY
—From
these
“=
T, mm
xs
(=e CeA
]
i
’
{xX
a=
δε
ἘΞ
variants
=
ie
we
7, CAESAR er
|
ead
obtain
R, and Ὁ =
τς
5
the values,
R.
--ὉὉ ἘΞ: ἢ]
᾿
CLES eu Let) sy
|=
the
ἢ) SS .—From these variants we obtain
values
th ae
Ἰὰς
Ἐπ
τς Ἐπ
δ
8. HADRIAN (2
ey
ay .—The only sign
(Dy pe
Ξ 1)re
with
an
unknown
value
here is —»;
POLLION assigned to it the value of I.
CHAM-
224
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
Collecting the results which he had obtained,
CHAMPOLLION was able to construct the following
alphabet :—
τ;
ak
J
τ
᾿
=
ἜΘ,
=
=
|
αν.
oes
ΞΞῚ
OF ἰδ
AWA
= N
Π
=>,
1
ΞΡ»
>,
mm
=
RK
ieee’
——
=S§
e, §, £) = Uord
|
=
a
me
a
=="
=a
=
es
cad)
ra
=K
eS
=T
kK
Further study enabled him to discover the
values of a number of syllabic hieroglyphic signs,
and to recognize the use of hieroglyphs as determinatives.
In cases where the Greek text supplied
him with the meaning of hieroglyphs of which he
did not know the phonetic values, his knowledge
of Coptic enabled him frequently to suggest
values which he found subsequently to be substantially correct. Further reference to determinatives and the importance of parallel passages
and texts will be made later on in this work.
Between 1822 and 1824 CHAMPOLLION worked
incessantly, and was enabled to modify much of
CHAMPOLLION
his earlier views,
and
AND
HIS
to develop
WORK
225
his Alphabet;
and he evolved some rudimentary principles of
Egyptian Grammar.
The results of his studies
at this period he published in his Précis du Systeme
Hiéroglyphique, Paris, 1824, wherein he took
special pains to inform his readers that his system
had nothing whatever to do with that of Dr.
Younc.
In 1824 he went to TuRIN and studied
the Egyptian papyri preserved there, whence he
passed on to Rome and Naptes. The French
Government sent him out to EGypT in 1828 to
copy the inscriptions on the tombs and temples,
and he collected there a vast amount of material,
and discovered in the duplicate texts the phonetic
values of many syllabic signs and new words.
His
copies
of inscriptions,
made
with
his own
hand, filled 2,000 pages (Les Deux Champollions,
p. 75). He returned from Egypt in March, 1830,
and began to arrange the material which he had
collected, and to describe the antiquities which he
had brought with him, and to translate the inscriptions upon them.
But before he could finish the
work, he collapsed suddenly and died on March 4,
1832.
His brother CHAMPOLLION-FIGEAC,
to
whose wise counsels and guidance he owed much
of his success, at once took in hand the arrangement of the great mass of literary material which
he had left behind, and in due course published
the famous Grammaire Egyptienne (Paris, 1836-41)
and the Dictionnaire Egyptien (Paris, folio, 1843).
Ῥ
226
THE
ROSETTA.
STONE
CHAMPOLLION-FIGEAC published a detailed account
of his brother’s work in Les Deux Champollions,
Leur vie et leurs Giuvres, Grenoble,
1887;
and a
still more elaborate work on the same subject in
two volumes, each containing more than 600
pages, has been written by H. HARTLEBEN,
Champollion,
sein
Leben und
sein
Werk,
Berlin,
1906.
But, notwithstanding the general accuracy of
CHAMPOLLION’S Egyptian alphabet, many students
of Egyptology viewed it with suspicion and
doubted his interpretations of words. F. A. W.
SPOHN and G. SEYFARTH maintained that the
Egyptian language was sacred and mystic, and
that all the hieroglyphs were symbols (De Lingua
et Literis veteris Aegyptiorum, Leipzig, 1825-31).
SEYFARTH divided hieroglyphs into three classes,
Euphonic (phonetic), Symphonic (enclitic), and
Aphonic (ideographic). J. KLAPROTH described
them as “ Akrologic’’ (Examen Critique, Paris,
1832) ; J. G. H. GREpPo accepted CHAMPOLLION’S
system (Essat, Paris, 1829), as did F. SALVOLINI,
who translated the account of the Battles of
RAMESES II against the KueTa from a papyrus
belonging to M. SALLIER of Aix with considerable
success.
R. Lepsius, while accepting the system
generally, analysed it with great skill and learning.
As a result of his criticisms and modifications (see
the Annali dell’ Istituto Archeologico di Roma,
tomo ix), and description of the structure of the
CHAMPOLLION
AND
HIS
WORK
227
ancient Egyptian Language, scholars generally
took the view that the true method of deciphering
the hieroglyphic inscriptions of Egypt had been
found.
The early followers of CHAMPOLLION found
themselves hampered for want of material, 1.6.
copies of texts to work upon, but this deficiency
was soon remedied, for the Governments of Italy
and France soon began to publish large volumes
of facsimiles or texts. The British Museum
published lithographic copies of the SALLIER and
ANASTASI papyri, and WILKINSON and BONOMI
collected and published many important historical
and religious texts. Great impetus was given to
the new study in Germany by CHEVALIER BUNSEN.
BircH,
HINCKS,
OSBURN,
PETTIGREW,
BURTON,
GOODWIN and others were pioneers of the new
science in England, and thanks to Mr. GLIDDON’s
lectures and writings CHAMPOLLION’S system
obtained a firm footing in AMERICA.
With the
publication of his Précis CHAMPOLLION seems to
have abandoned the further study of the RosETTA
STONE, and this isnot to be wondered at.
Afterall,
the fourteen incomplete lines of hieroglyphs which
are found on it gave him little scope to develop his
system of interpretation, and he must have felt
that he needed more material. And he knew that
the text on the Stone was, comparatively speaking,
a modern
document,
and that the Egyptians had
used the hieroglyphic system of writing some three
P2
228
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
or four thousand years before a PTOLEMY sat on
the throne of Ecypr.
During the years 1825-30
he was too busy in copying texts in ITALY, EGyPT
and NusiA to have much time to complete his
system and to reduce it to writing, and the result
was that he left it in a very imperfect state.
CHAMPOLLION-FIGEAC did not print the MSS. as
his brother
had
left
them,
but
he
sorted
and
classified them, and added supplementary matter,
and edited them in a scholarly and systematic
manner.
He lacked his brother’s brilliant intellect, but he was a sound scholar, and the young
science of Egyptology owed much to him.
VI.—THE
DECIPHERMENT
OF
EGYPTIAN
HIEROGLYPHS
There is httle doubt that the system of hiero-
glyphic writing which is made known
to us by
the inscriptions of the dynastic period found in
EGYPT is a development of the more primitive
picture-writing which was in use among the predynastic dwellers in the Valley of the NILE.
This primitive writing was probably indigenous,
and may have developed naturally into the hiero-
glyphic system with which we are now familiar,
but some think that the development was assisted,
or was entirely due to some influence emanating
from peoples living in India.
pictures alone cannot
the correct
sense
It is obvious that
be regarded as writing in
of the word,
and
true writing
DECIPHERMENT
OF EGYPTIAN
HIEROGLYPHS
229
only begins when the pictures are grouped solely
for the sake of their sownds, without any reference
to the objects which they represent.
Let us
assume that a king of some foreign country came
to visit the king of EGypT in predynastic times,
and that the royal scribe of the day wished to
record the event, and to preserve in writing the
names of the foreign king and his country. To
do this he would have to write down two series of
pictures, the sounds of which, as words, would
reproduce the sounds of the foreign names, without reference
to the objects which
represented.
This
also
was
these sounds
the
case
Egyptian hieroglyphs were concerned.
when
ALEX-
ANDER, a Macedonian, became king of EGpyT, and
the Egyptian scribes reproduced his name :
Pa A
ww a
oO
A—L—K—S—A—N—T—R-—S.
Now iN represents an eagle, Φ:
bowl, ——
a bolt,
areed, ~~
a lion, a
water, <=> a hand,
and <> a mouth, and the sounds of the words
of these pictures grouped represent the Greek
name ALEXANDROS.
The Egyptian scribes soon found out that pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions were absolutely necessary for grammatical purposes, and
in consequence they set aside a number of pictures
which they used phonetically. Thus Egyptian
230
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
hieroglyphic writing is both
PICTORIAL
and
PHONETIC, a fact which was first demonstrated by
YoOuNG
and CHAMPOLLION,
and it was
the latter
who showed that it was the phonetic characters
employed with the pictures, or hieroglyphs, that
made grammatical constructions possible.
On
the other hand, there are certain hieroglyphs
which are placed at the ends of words to indicate
their general meanings and are known as DETERMINATIVES, and others are used in words to assist
the reader in pronouncing them.
These last are
called PHONETIC COMPLEMENTS.
Some _hieroglyphs (ideographs) have more than one phonetic
value, in which case they are called POLYPHONES ;
many different ideographs have similar values,
in which case they are called HOMOPHONES.
In
alriving at the facts summarized above, CHAMPOLLION was greatly helped by his study of texts
other than that found on the ROsETTA STONE, and
by his good knowledge of Coptic. In the primitive
picture-writing, and often in the later hieroglyphic
writing, the plural is expressed in the following
ways: by writing the picture-sign or ideograph
three
times,
¢.g.
Ooh ga δ
offerings, aa ᾿iN ο great ones;
determinative
three
goddesses, [| aE ge
times,
fields,
ἣἣἣ
by writing the
e.g. =
Rrth ἢ
nomes ; by adding |to
the ideograph written once, e.g. ‘||gods, with the
DECIPHERMENT
OF EGYPTIAN
HIEROGLYPHS
231
variants ΤῊ kj; kjἢ and on the RosETTA STONE
we have dda gods and
goddesses.
The
word
“temple ’”’ is expressed by two ideographs thus,
?
1.) ΟΓ [Π], “house of the god,” or “ god’s house”’ ;
«
”
SEG
king[’s]
and from two others ca o—
Per-aa,
the word ‘“‘queen’”’
woman’’;
by two, thus An
LG
as
literally ‘‘ house great,’ we obtain the word
- Pharaon.~
As examples of the sounds of ideographs which
have become mere SYLLABLES in other words may
be quoted. 4 men in ΣΙ Ξ breast, ἶ mes in
(|) Be ear, ἢ lalde skin, <t mer ye
:
--ἢ
unguent, Q shen in on on
oy
tempest.
DETERMINATIVES assist the reader greatly in
reading the texts; the following are examples :—
i
to call.
ἈΝ
to bear, to carry.
man seated.
if
&
to
An
eat, to
speak.
think,
be inert, lazy, to rest.
oman:
ve
to
people, company.
&
foe, enemy, death.
MR
to be old.
ἥ
to fight, do something
ἵ
to exult, to glorify.
with violence.
THE
232
ROSETTA
STONE
to be pregnant.
to worship, to praise.
to be young, a child.
ῚGod, divine person.
J
fra
&
D
ὃ
to give birth.
hair.
to breathe.
to see.
ἽΝ
to weep.
6
to paint the eyes.
ὧν
to hear.
to nurse.
ως to vomit.
mummy, dead person.
ς
ῷ
the
dead,
person.
a
to hide.
τῷ
Ὲ.
᾿ξ
‘hs
[bo
pl
PPR»
[eae
CaaS
Ὁ
(ἢ
a priest.
isi libationer.
YW
a great number.
$85 to fall down.
Rens to swim.
sacred
}est
()
to embrace.
ν᾿
to paddle.
O4
ἰο fight.
AY
ae,
to rule, to reign.
ἃ ἢ | give.
(I
handicraft,
craftsman-
ship.
to
do a thing
strength.
«- ἢ to wash.
with
DECIPHERMENT
&
)
OF EGYPTIAN
to grasp.
HIEROGLYPHS
233
to fly.
|
bad, wicked.
to be in the middle.
go out.
Ὶ |
go in.
o—
to breathe.
to take.
to beget.
female.
|
‘tree.
to go, go in, go forward.
go back, return.
wood.
to walk, to run, to flee.
|
to invade, transgress.
|to blossom.
to thirst.
to go.
to be angry.
the front.
plant.
the end.
to give birth.
sky, heaven.
to repeat.
night.
rain, dew.
quadruped.
storm, hurricane, light-
to shoot.
ning.
bird, insect.
\sun, EAC
to be little.
shine, illumine.
Ξ5.
---(
.᾿ς.
ἐξ
«ο)
4
84]
scod
ττα
ἐδ
-ὖ
αὶ
ἰο
τοὶ
ἢAIP
5
».»
to hover, flutter.
-—~
moon.
THE
234
*
ROSETTA
star.
pret jana
A
STONE
pyramid.
l| obelisk.
v
Oo™
desert, foreign land.
mr
®)
mountain.
as booat, ship, to travel.
#-t
way, path, road.
ἈΠ-- to overthrow, wreck.
AA
ww
to open.
=owater.
NA
==
ae
river, canal, lake.
hake, pool.
}togo.
to lie, sleep.
sarcophagus, tomb.
to squeeze out.
walled village or town.
house.
Ἰ
Ss
wall, fort, strong place.
to fan.
to overthrow.
τῷ
ὭΣ fortress.
il
apparel, linen.
door.
val to go up.
cord, rope.
to untie, unravel.
string.
bag, case.
grain.
DECIPHERMENT
OF EGYPTIAN
ΤΙ
bushel.
gu44
to be permanent.
© oe
mineral, powder.
HIEROGLYPHS
ΚΈ
to shave.
=
to goinacircle.
=r
Carry off.
8S
to embalm, the dead,
unguent, to count up.
foreigner.
to hack, to hew wood.
strong
S
“sp?
to guide.
SE
CONCUL.
-~=
spread out.
acer
to smite, beat.
smelling
(ζῇ pot, jar.
ὃ
ἣ
"ie jtohack to pieces.
—
dig up.
oe |ptough, to plough.
i
sub-
stance.
unguent
<x
235
rub down.
pot.
to bring.
abstract idea.
=) to write, to polish.
\
to divide up.
x
to break.
The following will illustrate the use of determinatives in words :—
(ἢ weno δ uab priest.
τ et Χ ank flower.
SY ows to arin. ἢΕΠSpace “travel,depart,
ΙiIN Sf a remember.
BD
NNAN
qnn feeble,
exhausted.
we 0
=Se.e
J Pond ca
δῶ
~Rthnnu Syria.
bsnu house.
236
THE
ROSETTA
Θ adau
violence.
ὶA ,—.0
STONE
i Fa - ane shenra
tempest.
|
|
ees
ce
ὯΝ naru fish.
>
ξ »
aha to stand.
ὃτ
hau flesh.
©
@
til
«ΞΞ»
ee δ % i ρα ηιδαθει.,
oe ὍΝ τῷ γῇ sandstone.
iN 5." ᾧς apt duck.
Some
words
t=
have
two
aes oni & tp-t taste,
4
and
eg.
some
three,
vek time.
@ Absu Abydos.
determinatives,
e.g.
ἣ ἧ nan gbhk cool water,
τοῦ % ς
“>
SS
shat slay,
4 ἡ ἢ Ses xx gosbath.
In the following passage from an inscription at
Bani Hasan the determinatives are marked with *
and the syllables with ἴ :—
παν
Not a daughter
1ee
not
a widow
ἀπ
[of]
ἃ poor man
a)
did I harm ;
Oe
did I oppress;
DECIPHERMENT
OF EGYPTIAN
HIEROGLYPHS
237
ee ern ue uieeitis) πον ον
not
a field-labourer
i I repulse
him
IE SE ragSVE ageless
not
a shepherd
did I quarrel with;
not was there the chief
ΠῚ
ste hia sehsae shi
of a gang of 5 men
I took away
his men
[from whom]
? Yoo! = & others
NAW
for
the corvée ;
ON
not existed
wom OS * |DP
«τῆς.
in
se
not
my time;
τΞOt
in
4
#
Loe
ὁ Ox
ἢ: there]
a hungry man
ela
my time ;
es
oppression
|
[when] came
years
φώς
hungry
I stood up,
isd
a!
the fields
all.
I ploughed
238
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
CHAMPOLLION found out the true phonetic values
of many signs by comparing duplicate texts. Thus
one text will give Ὁ for “‘ day,” and another will
give JU iS : hru, and so supply the true reading.
One
text
writes
the
name
of the god ἵν al
and another transcribes it thus, era Kj Hpra;
one text writes <2, and another transcribes it thus,
iS|ING oFUdat.
Other examples are :—
Ϊ ΞΞΞ
nfr good, beautiful.
ay
——
ΞΞ
<=
IN aa great.
4
Ss Ofte
aes
44
ἘΞῚ
Ss IN unem to eat.
nw
7a\ JA)
I++
& =
OIG
=
FLL =
SQ
nem
to eat.
[|J es sebu stars.
FS chWAN GFame waa ons
“life, strength, health
1.6. the king.
[to him] ”
DECIPHERMENT
Ἢ
OF EGYPTIAN
HIEROGLYPHS
239
=e =) ilὶ i dt metu speak words.
ἣ ΞΞ Ί~ Jja aab-t west.
te os di
=F Were hoa om
and women.
=
ati]
puny iS \\
Nw
TMNUL
i the e ttwo arms.
m
Pet
Both YounG and CHAMPOLLION knew that the
numbers 1 to g were represented by strokes, e.g.
T=
9 i ΞΞΟ
@l==.T00,.and
ΠΟ
Ὁ
Ὁ
ands
| = 1,000, but
how to read them.
that
ἢ ΞΞ᾿ τὸ,
they did not
This is now
know
possible, as the
following shows.
;
2
i)
eZ
os
i “Tua
Ἢ =
[IS su
Loe sent (dual)
fe ΞΞΞΙ
Ἐς
ἜΣΕΙ εν
Ἢ ΞΞΞ
«ὃ ΠΣ
ἢ
nu ao ire Sa
ΠΕ = 9 al) psd
=
ΠῚ ΞΞΞ Ome
Sk
The feminine
of these.
iN fuau
is formed
7772;
by adding - ¢ to each
240
THE
@
ROSETTA
STONE
me
= I00
Inn IN
="1,000
iiN ha
II
10,000
ἘΠῚ J )aba
«A
,
-Ὁ =
100,000
8
shaa
ae
Afn
qn
aa
ae =
1,000,000 i
hh
Ordinal numbers are formed by adding
é.g.
5 sn-nu
the
and so on.
second,
3 Amt-nu
© nu,
the
third,
MRAmEsEs III is said to have given
Si,
PP PPRE ESS
bread cakes large
900,000
Ἷi
Cee,
Cee
2,000 4- 700!
IM
+
g0,000
+
ΠΩ
ANN
=- 50
1.6. 992,750 large loaves to one of the temples.
We have seen how useful the determinatives
are in arriving at the meanings of certain words,
and how the readings of variant texts help us to
ascertain the true values of many
alphabetic
signs,
but
there
syllables and
remains
a
large
number of words the exact meaning of which it is
extremely difficult to discover from the hiero-
glyphic texts themselves.
The earlier decipherers
DECIPHERMENT
of the
OF EGYPTIAN
cuneiform
HIEROGLYPHS
inscriptions,
when
once
241
they
had obtained the alphabetic and syllabic values
of the signs, could rely on their knowledge of
cognate languages for assistance.
In working
out the Persian version of the Bahisttin Inscription RAWLINSON had Zend and Sanskrit to help
him,
and
Norris
found
much
assistance
from
Hebrew and Syriac when translating the Babylonian version. The only cognate language to
which
YOUNG
and
CHAMPOLLION
could
appeal
was CopTIc, 1.6. that form of the Egyptian
language which was written in Greek letters, and
has been preserved for us chiefly in the translations of the Scriptures and the writings of the
Fathers in use among the Egyptian Christians.
But we must remember that the Decree of
Memphis was written B.c. 197-196, and that there
is very little Coptic literature which can be
assigned with any degree of certainty to a period
earlier than A.D. 300.
CHAMPOLLION did undoubtedly find that his great knowledge of Coptic
stood him in good stead, but Coptic represented
the ordinary language of the people rather than
the literary language used by the scribes in
drawing up official documents, and its use for
comparative purposes is strictly limited. Still,
when the Greek gave the meanings of certain
groups of hieroglyphs the Coptic was very useful,
in respect of common words, in suggesting probable
readings.
This is clear from the following
Q
242
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
examples. The reader will note that, as the
result of phonetic decay, the final consonants of
many old Egyptian words are not found in their
Coptic equivalents.
HIEROGLYPHS.
Ἂ Ἶpt
CoPTIc.
heaven
de
JIQuee? [|“baa
n pt iron
Rerume
J ioe 3 ) bnr
date palm
Rene
hunger
&,KO
=
7A)
ἢ
Ge hδ,ν
|oe
mom Sura
SS
to drink
<=> Y —— verymth
Ἐπ |ntyEe
ΓΡΑΥ͂Σ
Ϊ
nfr
<5
᾿
good, fair
snthr
—
PURE!
NOwTe
ΠΟΎΚΕ
pure oil
;
incense
ii ἣὃς μά snhm
[ἷ>
man
god
\ Ὶ© Ὶ © nkh
il
Ϊ—
CuO
AWW
a shur
περ,
CONTE
grasshopper
to curse
ΟΔΙΠΕΡ,
CA 9,06
DECIPHERMENT
2 hy
HIEROGLYPHS
face
a
;
oof. WP atf
a
OF EGYPTIAN
ΕΠ γ pr
TS
243
& pa
father
EIwT
temple
epee!
πὶ > Phair
<—
ichneumon
δ
ον Ὰ
The Greek text on the ROSETTA STONE mentions
the
names
of certain
Macedonian
months,
and
these showed CHAMPOLLION that the Egyptians
had a system of their own and that they reckoned
their months on an entirely different system. We
know now that the Egyptian year contained
months,
12
each of 30 days, and that to these 360
days they added 5 so-called ‘“‘epagomenal”’ days,
making 365 days in all.
The 12 months were
divided into 3 seasons, each containing
120 days.
As a year of 365 days was nearly a quarter of a
day short of the true solar year, it came to pass
that the festivals were celebrated later and later
each year, and when a sufficient number of years
had passed, the festivals that ought to have been
celebrated in the summer were actually celebrated
in the winter.
PToLemy
III, in order to remedy
this state of affairs, ordered that one day was
to be added to the calendar every four years.
The
three seasons were
co
PER-T ok and
SHEMU
called
os
ρα,
AKkH-T
and
ἧι εἶ ὍΣ:
=
{86 four
Q2
244
THE
months
second,
ROSETTA
of each season
third and fourth
STONE
were called the first,
month of that season
respectively.
WINTER.
| SPRING.
| SUMMER.
΄σο-
ὯΝ
toa
(Se!
-o~
CWI
A
Ι
The 360 | -ow
{ΠῚ (6)
fa
i
ose
ae
ji
(=a! | --5
aS
(aa)
©
&
days.
Ne
tl String
΄“-.-
ὩΣ
ΞΟ
GC
PI
{|| Θ᾽
πι
ΞΘ]
πι
So
ἊΣ
m=
TT
σς.-.
PEER Ὡς
Gone
{{
05}
(SS!
Cop
(Saree)
1Π| {ΠῚ Θ᾽
ΞΟ]
πὶ
So
Oo
2 ie
ul
eS
(2\
va
WW
ΠῚ
ἜΞΞΞΞ
tt
Ι
1.6. “ days five to be added to the year.”
The names given to the twelve months of the
Egyptian year by the Greeks and Copts were :—
1 Thoth.
Sie Lyi
9 Pachon.
2 Paophi. | 6 Mechir.
10 Payni.
3 Hathyr. | 7 Phamenoth.|
11 Epiphi.
4 Choiakh. | 8 Pharmuthi. | 12 Mesore.
These names
the
festivals
celebrated
Pachon =
are corruptions of the names
which
in
the
© as
the god Khonsu”;
[is the month
the
ancient
of
Egyptians
various
months.
Thus
ἣ “this [is the month of]
Paophi=
of] the
Ap-t
° 0° “ this
(¢.e. Karnak)”;
THE
Payni=
HIEROGLYPHIC
ALPHABET
245
© | ““ © “this [is the month of] the
yi
AWA
Valley’;
awww
LY)
Phamenoth =
7
Kj
“ this [is the month of] King Amen-hetep.”
VII.—THE
iN A
HIEROGLYPHIC
Heb.
ears
ee
--
A
}.ew,
»
yand5
Ae
ἀῶ
Ft)
» ©, Copticyg
<=>
4
RandL,,
πὴ
j
"
»
Heb. Ὁ
Σὰν
Π
x~
ΩΝ
ἜΤ
e
bie
iN
KH
(or. H) Heb. 3,
Arab. ¢, Copt. ὃ and
5
jp Boe
Ἐ
&F
©
|
"ἊΨ
u
ALPHABET!
a
»
Ἁ
, Arab.
IAe
AG
Ὁ»
———)
T
ΚΠ}
»
oD
Copt. σ᾽ οἵ x,
Arab.
<>
}
TorD
τε
DJ or
50)
Heb.»
Op
1 In German works jA is transliterated by 3,
——o by ‘ (inverted comma),
@ by ἢ, #—
teller)
Ce
opt.
τ
κ᾿
”
cry
H
9
K
5
sands
Wand w
Ἵ'
x
by i,
by ἢ, | by §,
cum by ὅ, 4 byk, == byt, ἢby tj, => by ἃ, and "ἢ by d.
246
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
Strictly speaking, all the letters of the Egyptian
Alphabet
of the
are consonants,
Hebrew,
Syriac
just as are the letters
and
Arabic
Alphabets,
but certain of them, viz., ING Π,\\, δ and .- -δ)
are treated
truth weak
as vowels, although they are in
consonants.
BirRcH and BRUGSCH,
and some of the early Egyptologists, transcribed
these weak consonants
as vowels, because in the
transcription of Greek and Roman proper names
they were used as vowels.
In reading a text
the Egyptian reader himself supplied the vowels,
and it is for this reason that we shall never know
accurately how the Egyptians pronounced their
words.
We find the word ἘΞ: NFR
in a text,
and know that it means “ good,”’ but it is impossible to pronounce this word without the help of
some vowels.
The word occurs in Coptic, but in
five different forms, viz., nofre, nofra, nofrt, nabre,
and nafre. In transliterating Egyptian words I
have often added an 6, as the Copts seem to have
done, for otherwise the words are unpronounceable.
This is especially the case in proper names, 6.9.
Pthhtp = Ptah-hetep.
And if we
use the
German system of transliteration the difficulty
is increased;
compare
the
name
of the
queen
‘nbnsnfr’ibr' = Ankh (or h)-nes-nefer-ab-Ra and
the prenomen of Thothmes III, Mnbprr‘ = Menkheper-Ra.
‘eRTIUd 911,
ΘΡΈΓΠΟΙΟΣ
τ101}9Y}
To facep. 246.]
ΔαΙΘ]ΟΊ
yy sem
‘anpiy_d9γ814(SP
SNOUIk} ¥sIEqO
10
Jauojo9g suok
“YINOS 911,
1) τποα
punoy
ur
sty}
“preAqinoy
ΠΕΣ
THE
COPTIC
VIII.—THE
ALPHABET
COPTIC
247
ALPHABET
The Coptic Alphabet contains 24 Greek letters,
and 7 which are derived from demotic forms of
hieratic characters to represent sounds for which
the Greek alphabet contained no equivalents.
Coptic NAME.
Coptic NAME.
&
alpha
A
p
ro
R
5
bida
B
Cc
sima
Ὁ
᾿
Saray:
S
ty
tau
iT
D
Ἔ
πες
E
"
8
᾿
zita
7
ὡς
“τ
i
H
éta
Ε
Ἷ
be
π
Θ
ὑπ:
Wiel
i
ss
Ἀ
I
a
ἀπὸ
es
F
Τὰς
Ε
Ζ
J
dalda
οἱ
lauta
᾿
K
kappa
K
Ἂ
laula
OL
ect
fei
22
π
mi
ni
M
A
N
2)
hei, or, hei KA
hei, or, hei H
oe
xl
X (KS)
x
djandjia
DJ
Ope
60
Ό
Co
tjima
1]
ΤΕΣ
26!
1
TI
APPENDIX
Ι
THE DECREE CONFERRING ADDITIONAL
HONOURS ON PTOLEMY III EUERGETES I
(B.C. 247-221) WHICH WAS PASSED BY THE
ΡΚΙΕΒΤΗΘΟΙ ΟΕ ALL EGYPT ASSEMBLED
AT MEMPHIS ON THE SEVENTEENTH DAY
OPS Hi MONTH ΘῈ ΤΥΒΙ ΙΝ THE NINTH
YEAR OF THE KING’S REIGN
Π.
THE DECREE CONFERRING HONOURS ON
PTOLEMY IV PHILOPATOR (B.C. 221-203)
WHICH
ΑΘ
PASSED ΒΥ PHE
PRIESTHOODS OF VALE EGYPT SASSEMBLED
AT
MEMPHISSON@
THE ΘΙ
DAY OF DHE
MONTH OF PAOPHI IN THE SIXTH YEAR
OF THE-KING S REIGN:
τὰ
=
4
<
ΕΞ
"ΞΕ
τς
=
7
"
~
=
Ke ΠΥ
ee
a alls Pe A δῶ
sayμὰ Σ
ἢν We anions - ᾿
j νυν,
“ey
SAAT
if
eS
ΠῚ
hee
a”
1S
Vee
dt
eet
wie:
“2
ΤΟΝ
τ
Ht
A
ie” Sead
᾿
4 CA
hy
aeRO
a
meet
ΔΤ
Lacie oie
AA
fi
oe
ui" χὰ δ
TeeGA
DWE
ἄν:
ἌΝ
ΝΕ:
;
ΑΣ Toit
ΩΣ
ΤΑΥ͂!
+) ΞΜ ΣΝ, ἀπ
ΠΑ, Ὁ
Wier
Pare τ ΠΟ 2
LA
τY the Pe ee
ΝΟ
ὦ
ag
Sas
THE
DECREE
OF CANOPUS
The copies of the Greek and_ hieroglyphic
versions of the Decree of Canopus printed in this
book are taken from the famous ‘“ Stele of
Canopus’ which was discovered on April 15,
1866, at SAN AL-HAGAR (1.6. TANIS or ZOAN) by a
party of German savants, which included Professors R. LEpsius, S. L. REINIscH, E. R. ROESLER
and Herr WEIDENBACH.
The Stele is a fine limestone slab measuring 7 ft. 4 in. in height, 2 ft. 8 in.
in width, and
13% inches in thickness.
On the
upper half of the front are cut 37 lines of hieroglyphs, of characteristic Ptolemaic form, and below
these are 76 lines of Greek uncials ; on the righthand edge of the Stele are 74 lines of Demotic
TEXT.
The monument is preserved in the Egyptian
Museum in Cairo, and there is a good cast of it,
presented by the Khedive, Isma‘il Pasha, in 1871,
in the British
Museum
(see the Guide,
p.
258,
No. 957 [1081]). The Greek and hieroglyphic
texts were published by:—REINISCH and ROESLER,
Die
zwetsprachige
Inschrift
von
Tanis,
Vienna,
1866 ; by K. R. Lepsius, Das bilingue Dekret von
Kanopus, Berlin, 1866 (with a translation of the
Greek text and a transliteration and translation of
252
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
the hieroglyphic text) ; by P. PreRRET, Le décret
trilingue de Canope, Paris, 1881; by S. SHARPE,
The Decree of Canopus, London, 1870; and by
BupceE, The Decrees of Memphis and Canopus,
London,
1904,
3 vols.
See
also
H.
BRUGSCH,
Thesaurus inscriptionem Aegyptiacarum, Leipzig,
1883-91, part vi, Ρ. 1554 1. ; and SETHE, Urkunden,
11, Ρ. 125 1.
The Demotic
REVILLOUT,
text has been published by E.
Chrestomathte
démotique, Paris, 1880,
Pp. 125 1.,, by We. N= Groen, = Lecdécreteac
Canope,” in Rev. Egyptologique, Paris, 1891; Les
deux versions démotiques du décret de Canope, Paris,
1888 ; by J. KRALL,
Demotische
Lesesticke,
II,
Leipzig, 1908 ; by H. Brucscu, Thesaurus, part v,
p- 1554; and by SPIEGELBERG, Kanopus und
Memphis (Rosettana), Heidelberg, 1922. English
translations of the Greek text have been published
by ΒΙΚΟΗ (Trans. Soc. Lit., London, 1870, vol. 14,
Pp. 349-95; and Records of the Past, London (no
date), vol. v, pp. 81-90);
by BupGE,
The Decrees
of Memphis and Canopus, London, 1904, vol. III;
by J. P. Manarry, The Empire of the Ptolemies,
p. 208 f.; and E. Bevan, The Ptolemaic
Dynasty,
p. 208 f.
In 1881 a duplicate of the Stele of Canopus was
found by MasPERO at Kom al-Hisn (see G. MILLER,
“ Nouvelle copie du décret de Canope,”’ in Comptes
rendus, série iv, tome II, pp. 85-90). The new
Stele is of white
limestone, and is 2 m.
22 cm.
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
253
in height and 78 cm. in width, and is inscribed
with 26 lines of hieroglyphs, 20 lines of Demotic,
and 64 lines of Greek uncials. It is preserved in
the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where it bears the
No. 22186, and has been described by AHMAD BEY
KAMAL, Catalogue général, Cairo, 1905, p. 182,
plates LIX, LX and LXI.
The Greek text has
been published in Journal des Savanis, 1883,
pp. 214-40;
and the Demotic text by GRoFF,
KRALL,
BruGscu
(Thesaurus,
vi, p. 1575
f.), and
SPIEGEBERGL ; and the variants of the hieroglyphic
text have been given by SETHE. A portion ofa
second duplicate of the Stele of Canopus is
preserved in the Louvre, and it contains parts
of ll. 29-37 of the hieroglyphic text.
254
THE
THE
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
GREEK
TEXT:
ENGLISH
RENDERING
I.—THE
DATING
OF
DECREE
THE
In the reign of ProLemy (III), the son of Ptolemy
and Arsinoé,
the
Brother
God
and
Sister
God,
the ninth year, APOLLONIDES, the son of Moschion,
being priest of Alexander, and of the Brother and
Sister Gods, and of the Well-Doing
Gods,
MENE-
KRATEIA, the daughter of Philammon, being
Kanephoros
of Arsinoé Philadelphos, on the
seventh day [of the month] Apellaios (December)
{which is] the seventeenth day of the month of
Tybi' of the Egyptians.
II.—INTRODUCTION
AND
DECREE
DECREE
The high priests and the prophets, and those
who go into the holy place (7.e. the shrine) to
array the gods in their apparel, and the bearers of
feathers, and the sacred
scribes, and the rest of
1 March 6, 237 B.c., according to Dr. E. Bevan.
911,
jo
ajdway
nyJpy
Aq
popunoy
πιο.)
8
MoTA ὕπο} 917
11ΠΠ
Δυιθ]014
ydes30j0yd
Aq 911} 9781“Ν᾽
oyeog
Jo
To face p. 254.]}
πο]λα
ἸΟΧΠῚ
(
21ΟΙ
Butyoo,
᾿ΘΡΑΒΔΛΊ
PLATE XIV.
hh
yy.
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
255
the priests who gathered themselves together
from the temples throughout the country for the
fifth day of [the month of] Dios,! whereon are
celebrated the birthday festivals of the King, and
for the twenty-fifth day of the same month,
whereon he received the sovereignty from his
father, having assembled on this day in the
temple of the Well-Doing Gods in Canopus, spake
[thus] :—
III.—THE
BENEFITS
BY PTOLEMY
III AND
CONFERRED
HIS
ON
THE
SISTER-WIFE
TEMPLES
BERENICE
Inasmuch as King PToLemy, the son of Ptolemy
and Arsinoé, the Brother God and Sister God,
and BERENICE, his sister and wife, the Well-Doing
Gods, are at all times performing very many and
great deeds of benevolence for the temples
throughout the country; and are multiplying
exceedingly the honours of the gods,
IV.—THEIR MAJESTIES ENDOWED THE SHRINES OF
THE SACRED ANIMALS, AND BROUGHT BACK
THE STATUES OF THE GODS FROM PERSIA TO
EGYPT
and for Apis and for MNEvis,
and for the other
sacred animals which are worshipped in the
country, they take the greatest care in every way
possible, with great expense and provisions in
1 October-November.
256
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
abundance; and the sacred images which had
been carried off from the country by the Persians,
the King having made an expedition outside
Egypt, brought them back safely unto Egypt,
and restored [them] to the temples wherefrom
they had been carried off originally ;
V.—THE
EGYPT,
KING
PROVIDED
AND
WAGED
FOR
WAR
THE
IN
PROTECTION
FOREIGN
OF
LANDS
and hath preserved peace in the country, fighting
battles on its behalf against many peoples and
those who were their overlords; and hath provided good government for all those who live in
the country (1.6. the natives), and for all those
who are in subjection to Their Majesties (1.6.
Syrians, Nubians, etc.) ;
VI.—THE
KING’S
FAMINE-RELIEF
MEASURES
and when on one occasion the river [Nile] did not
rise [adequately], and all those who were in the
country were terror-stricken because of what had
happened, and they recalled to their memories
the calamities which had taken place under some
of the earlier kings, when it fell out that those
who dwelt in the country were in distress because
of their lacking water; and how they (1.6. Their
Majesties) helped and showed care for those who
lived in the temples, and those who dwelt in the
country, and by taking much forethought, and by
To face p. 256.]
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THE
DECREE.
OF
CANOPUS
257
giving up no small amount of their revenues in
order to save men’s lives, having brought into
the country corn from Syria, and Phoenicia, and
Cyprus, and from many other regions, where
prices were high, they saved those who lived in
Egypt, and so leave behind them a deathless deed
of
kindness,
and
of
their
own
merit
a
great
memorial, both to present and future generations,
in return wherefor the gods have given to them
(1.6. Their Majesties) firmly established sovereignty,
and they shall give unto them all other good
things for ever and ever.
VII.— THE
PRIESTS
HONOURS
THEIR
DECIDE
DUE
TO
TO
THEIR
INCREASE
THE
MAJESTIES
AND
ANCESTORS
WITH FORTUNE’S FAVOUR (7.6. with Good Luck)
It is [hereby] decreed by the priests everywhere
in the country :—
To multiply the honours which are at present
[paid] in the temples to King ProLemy and Queen
BERENICE, the Well-Doing Gods, and to those who
begot them, the Brother Gods, and to their fore-
bears the Saviour Gods; and the priests who are
in each and every temple throughout the country
shall, in addition [to their other titles] be called
“priests of the Well-Doing Gods,” and the priesthood of the Well-Doing Gods shall be inscribed
in all their deeds (or, legal instruments), and
added to the engraving upon their rings ;
258
THE
VIII.—THE
OF
ROSETTA
STONE
PRIESTS
DECREE
FIFTH
ORDER
A
THE
OF
FORMATION
PRIESTS
And there shall be established in addition to the
four tribes of the company of priests which already
exist in each and every temple, another tribe
which is to be named the “ Fifth Tribe of [the
priests of] the Well-Doing Gods,”
IX:—THE
SELECTION
THEIR
OF
THE
PRIVILEGES
since it hath happened
NEW
AND
through
TRIBE
AND
STATUS
the favour
of
fortune, that the birth of King PToLemy, the
son of the Brother Gods, took place on the fifth day
of the month of Dios, which became the source
of very many good things for all mankind; and
among this Tribe shall be entered the priests who
have
been
born
since
the first year,
and
those
who are to be inscribed among them, up to the
month of Mesore, in the ninth year, and those who
shall be begotten by them for ever; and those
who were priests up to the first year shall continue
in the Tribes wherein they were. And, similarly,
the children who shall be begotten by them shall
be entered among the Tribes wherein their fathers
were;
and instead of the twenty councillorpriests, who were elected each year from the four
Tribes of priests which already exist, five from each
Tribe, there shall be five and twenty councillorpriests, and the five additional priests shall be
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
259
taken from the Fifth Tribe of the Well-Doing
Gods; and the priests of the Fifth Tribe of the
Well-Doing Gods shall take their part in the
religious services, and also in everything else
which is in the temples, and there shall be a chief
of the Tribe (Phylarch), even as there is in the
other four Tribes.
X.—A
FESTIVAL IN HONOUR OF THE WELL-DOING
GODS SHALL BE CELEBRATED ON THE DAY OF
THE RISING OF SOTHIS (SIRIUS, THE DOG-STAR)
And inasmuch as there are celebrated in the
temples each month festivals of the Well-Doing
Gods, according to the DECREE which was passed
originally, namely, on the fifth day, and the ninth
day, and the twenty-fifth day ; and since festivals
and processions generally are celebrated in honour
of the other great gods each year; a general
festival and procession shall be celebrated each
year, both in the temples and by the people
throughout
PTOLEMY
the
and
country
Queen
in honour
BERENICE,
of
King
the Well-Doing
Gods, on the day whereon the star of Isis riseth,
which, according to the holy books, is regarded
as the New Year and is now, in the ninth year,
kept on the first day of the month
wherein
the
Greater
Bubastis are celebrated,
and
Lesser
of Payni,
festivals
of
and the garnering of the
fruit and the rise of the River [Nile] take place ;
R2
260
THE,
KOSETTATSTONE
but if it fall out that the rising of the star shall, in
the course of four years, change to another day,
the festival and procession shall not be changed,
but they shall be celebrated on the first day of
Payni, even as they were celebrated originally on
that day in the ninth year ; and the festival shall
last for five days, and crowns (or, garlands) shall
be worn, and sacrifices and libations (shall be made],
and whatsoever ought to be done shall be done.
XI.—A
SIXTH
TO
THE
EPAGOMENAL
CALENDAR
DAY
SHALL
BE
EVERY
FOUR
YEARS
ADDED
And that the seasons of the year may coincide
wholly with the present settlement
(or, constitu-
tion of the world), and that it may not happen
that some of the popular festivals which ought to
be held in the winter come to be celebrated in the
summer, [owing to] the Star (1.6. the Sun) changing
one day in the course of four years, and that
festivals which are now kept in the summer come
to be celebrated in the winter in times to come,
even as hath formerly happened, and would
happen at the present time if the year continued
to consist of three hundred and sixty days, and
the five additional days which it is customary to
add thereto; from this time onward one day, a
festival of the Well-Doing Gods, shall be added
every four years to the five additional days, before
the New Year, so that all [men] may know that
the error of deficiency which existed formerly in
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
261
respect of the arrangement of the seasons, and of
the year, and of the views usually believed
con-
cerning the general ordering of the heavens, hath
been rectified and filled up satisfactorily by the
Well-Doing Gods.
XII.—THE CEREMONIAL MOURNING OF THE PRIESTS
FOR THE SUDDEN DEATH OF THE PRINCESS
BERENICE
And since it hath happened that the daughter
who was born of King PToLEMy and Queen
BERENICE, the Well-Doing Gods, and was called
*‘ Berenice,’
who
was
straightway
proclaimed
Queen, being a virgin, departed suddenly into the
everlasting world, whilst there were with him
the priests who were wont to gather themselves
together to the king every year, who made great
mourning straightway because of that which
had happened, and having made supplication to
the King and to the Queen, they persuaded them
to
establish
the
Goddess
[‘‘ Berenice’’]
with
Osiris in the temple of Canopus, which is not only
among the temples of the first class, but is also
held in the greatest reverence, both by the King
and all the people throughout the country, and
the bringing up of the sacred bark of Osiris to this
temple from the temple in the Herakleion taketh
place each year, on the twenty-ninth day of the
month of Choiach, when all [the priests] from the
temples of the first class offer up sacrifices upon
262
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
the altars which they have set up for each of the
temples of the first class on each side of the
dromos.
And after this they performed all the
things which were connected with her deification,
and brought to an end the mourning ceremonies
with all the magnificence and great care which it
is wont
Mnevis.
to show
[at the burials]
of Apis and
XIII.—DIVINE HONOURS SIMILAR TO THOSE WHICH
ARE PAID TO THE DAUGHTER OF THE SUN-GOD
RA ARE
TO BE PAID TO THE PRINCESS
BERENICE
It is decreed :-—
To pay to Queen BERENICE, the daughter of
the Well-Doing Gods, everlasting honours in all
the temples throughout the country; and inasmuch as she departed to the gods in the month
of Tybi, wherein, in the beginning, the daughter
of Helios departed from life, whom her loving
father
at one
time
called his ‘‘ crown,’
and
at
another his “ sight,’”’ and they celebrated in her
honour a festival and tow round the sacred boat
of Osiris in procession in the greater number of
the temples of the first class in this month;
wherein her apotheosis took place originally, and
to celebrate for Queen BERENICE also, the daughter
of the Well-Doing Gods, in all the temples throughout the country, in the month of Tybi, a festival
and
a
procession
for
four
days,
from
the
To face p. 262.)
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PLATE
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
263
seventeenth day, wherein the procession and the
conclusion of the lamentation for her originally
took place ;
XIV-——-A
GOLDEN
BERENICE,
WITH
A
TO
SPECIAL
STATUE
BE
OR
CARRIED
CROWN,
“THE
IN
IS TO
PRINCESS
PROCESSION,
BE
MADE
and to make of her a sacred statue of gold, set
with precious stones, in each of the temples of
the first and second class, and to set it up in the
most holy place, and a prophet, or one of the
priests who go into the sanctuary to dress the
gods, shall carry it in his arms, when the journeyings forth [of the gods] on the festivals of the
other gods are celebrated, so that being seen by
all it may be adored and bowed down to under
the name
of “ Berenice,
the Queen
of Virgins ”’ ;
and, moreover, the crown which shall be placed
upon the head of her statue shall be different
from that which is placed upon the statue of her
mother, Queen BERENICE, and it shall be [formed]
of two ears of corn between which shall be a
serpent-shaped crown, and behind this shall be a
sceptre, papyrus-shaped, [similar to those] which
the goddesses
are wont
to hold in their hands;
and round this [sceptre] the tail of the serpent
crown shall be wound, so that from the arrange-
ment of the crown the name of BERENICE shall
be indicated according to the distinguishing signs
of the hieroglyphs ;
264
THE
XV.—A
BE
SECOND
SET
PAY
ROSETTA
GOLD
UP, AND
HONOUR
TO
STATUE
THE
STONE
OF
BERENICE
PRIESTLY
VIRGINS
SHALL
SHALL
IT
and when the Kikellia are celebrated in the
month of Choiach before the procession (Periplus)
of Osiris, the daughters of the priests shall
make ready another statue of Berenice, the
Queen
of
Virgins,
whereto
likewise
they
shall offer ΠΡ sacrifices, and shall perform
all the other things which it is customary to
perform at this festival; and it shall be lawful, after
the
same
manner,
for
other
virgins
who desire to perform the ceremonies which
it is customary to perform to the goddess, so
to do; and hymns shall be sung to her, both
by the holy virgins who are specially chosen,
and by those who minister unto the gods,
and. who shall put on their heads the crowns
which are peculiar to the gods, whose priestesses
they are held to be; and when the early harvest
is nigh, the holy virgins shall bear the ears of
corn which are to be set before the image of the
goddess; and both at the festivals and in the
panegyrics of the other gods the singing men and
the singing women, shall sing unto her daily the
songs which the sacred scribes, having written
them down, shall give to the singing master,
whereof copies shall be inscribed in the sacred
books ;
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
265
XVI.—PROVISION
SHALL
BE
MADE
FOR’
THE
DAUGHTERS OF THE PRIESTS.
THE ‘‘ BREAD
OF BERENICE ”’
and when supplies of food are given to the priests
out of the revenues of the temples, whensoever
they are brought for the whole company [of the
priests], there shall be given to the daughters of
the priests out of the revenues of the temples,
[reckoning] from the day when they were born,
the subsistence which hath been calculated by
the Councillor-priests in each of the temples
according to the amount of the revenues of the
temples ; the bread which shall be given to the
wives of the priests shall have a special form, and
shall be called the “ Bread of Berenice.”
XVII.—THE
MANNER
OF
PUBLICATION
OF
THE
DECREE
The
governor
who
hath
been
appointed
to
each temple, and the high-priest, and the sacred
scribes in each temple shall engrave a copy of this
Decree upon a stele of stone or bronze in hieroglyphic characters, and in Egyptian and in Greek
characters, and shall set it up in the place where
it will be most seen in the temples of the first, and
second, and third class, so that the priests through-
out
the country
honour
may
the Well-Doing
as is most right.
show
that
they hold
in
Gods, and their children,
THE
266
ROSETTA
THE DECREE
THE DEMOTIC
=
STONE
OF CANOPUS
TEXT:
ENGLISH
RENDERING
[I1.—THE DATING
OF THE
DECREE]
[In] the ninth year, [on] the seventh day of
[the month] Apis, [which is the seventeenth
day of the first month of the season Per-t], of
PHARAOH (life, strength, health [to him ἢ)
PTOLEMY, the everliving, the son of PTOLEMY,
and
ARSINOE,
the Gods-Brothers—the
priest
of ALEXANDER, and of the Gods-Brothers, and
of the Gods-the-Well-doers, was
APOLLONIDES,
the son of
MENEKRATEIA,
the daughter of PHIL-AMMON,
MoscuHIon,
[when]
was the bearer of
IS the
basket (Kanephoros)
Brother-lover.
before Arsinoé, the
[IIL—INTRODUCTION OR PREFACE]
[On this day] DECREE :—
The high-priests, and the ministers of the gods
(prophets), and the priests who go into the
holy place (z.e. sanctuary) to array the gods in
their apparel, and the scribes of the HOUSE OF
LIFE (1.6. the great College of the priests), and
the scribes of
the Books OF THE GoD, and the other priests,
who had come from the temples of EGYPT, on
egy τὴς
-
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To face p. 266.]
ae
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
267
the fifth day of the month Tis, on which day
was celebrated the Birthday
of PHARAOH
(life, strength, health [to him !]),
and on the twenty-fifth day of the month
aforesaid on which day he received the exalted
rank (of sovereign) from the hand of his
father, and had assembled
ioe)
in the
house of the god of the Gods, the Well-doers,
in PN-GuTI (CANOPUS), they decreed [thus ]:—
[III.—DESCRIPTION
PTOLEMY
OF THE BENEFACTIONS
III AND
OF
ARSINOE]
Inasmuch as it hath happened that PHARAOH
(life, health, strength [to him !]) PTroLemy
the everliving, the son of ProLemy (IV) and
ARSINOE, the Gods-Brothers, and the PHARAOH
(fem.), Queen BERENICE,
IO
his sister and
Ι1
doers, have made very many great benefactions
to the temples of EGypT on every occasion
[possible] and they have multiplied exceedingly
the
honours [to be paid] to the gods;
his wife, the Gods,
the Well-
[IV.—THEIR CARE FOR THE CULT OF APIS AND
MNEVIS ; THEIR RESTORATION OF THE
STATUES OF THE GODS TO EGYPT FROM
PERSIA]
and have at all times taken care to provide
all that is necessary for the [cult of] Apis,
and MNEVIS, and the other sacred animals that
THE
268
12
ROSETTA
STONE
are worshipped in Ecypt; and they laboured
and made great preparations
in respect of the statues of the gods which the
men of Persia had carried away from EGYPT.
Pharaoh (life, health, strength [to him !])
marched out into foreign territories to rescue
them (1.6. the statues), he brought them [back]
to EGYPT,
13 he [re]placed them in their temples wherefrom
they had originally been taken.
[V.—THEY
HAVE
PROTECTED EGYPT
FOREIGN FOES]
AGAINST
He hath protected the territory [of Ecypt]
against war, whilst carrying on war in lands
14
outside [EGypT] which were remote,
and against many foreign lands, and the men
who ruled over them. And they (t.e. PTOLEMY
and his Queen) made the Law (or, the Right)
to be kept by everyone in EGypt, and the
other peoples who were under their august rule.
[VI.—HOW THEY FED THE PEOPLE DURING A
PERIOD OF FAMINE]
When there was a low Nile-flood (7.e. Inundation),
15 during their reign, and there was a period of
scarcity (or, famine), and it happened that all
the people of EGypT were terrified because of
that which had happened, and they thought
(‘unesny YSAtIg oy} Ul 2580 8 WOT)
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PATE RAL
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
269
of the calamity which had taken place during
the reigns of some of
16 the earlier Pharaohs, when the people of Ecypt
[suffered] through the want of [the waters of
the Nile] which took place in their time. Then
they (1.6. ProLemy and his Queen) took care,
with
warm
affection
of heart,
for those
who
were in
17 the temples, and the other people who were in
EcypT, and they pondered much, casting all
consideration for themselves in their many
undertakings,! with the intention of making
men to live.
18 They caused grain, which was purchased at a
price higher than that of silver, to be brought
from the region of ASHER (SyrRiA), [and] from
the territory of the people of KHAR, [and]
from the Island of SALMINA (CYPRUS),
19 and from many other places. They saved the
people who were in EcypT, [thus] leaving
behind
20
them
benefactions
for all time, and a
great (or, splendid) example of their exalted
[virtue], both for those who are now alive, and
for those who shall come after. Wherefore
the gods have given unto them as a reward the
stablishment of their exalted sovereignty, and
have given unto them every kind of good
thing for ever and ever.
1 The literal translation of Spiegelberg reads ‘‘sie ihre
sandalen in Bezug auf sich Einnahmen hinter sich wurfen.”’
THE
270
“ROSETREA,
STONE
[VII.—THE PRIESTS DECIDE TO MULTIPLY THE
HONOURS PAID TO THEIR MAJESTIES]
With the health and the strength !
It hath entered the heart of the priests who
21
are in Ecypt to add to the honours which are
paid to PHARAOH (life, strength, health [to
him !]), Prurmis and the Queen (life, strength,
health [to her !]) BERENICE,
22 the Gods, the Well-doers, in the temples, and
those which
are paid
to the Gods-Brothers,
who begot them, and those which are paid to
the Gods-Saviours, who caused them to come
into being those who begot them.
[VIII.—A FIFTH ORDER OF THE PRIESTS OF THE
GODS, THE WELL-DOERS, IS TO BE ESTABLISHED]
23 The priests who are in the temples of Ecypt,
‘in every temple, shall be called ‘‘ Priests of the
Gods,
24
the Well-doers,’’
in addition
to their
other priestly names, and they shall write it
on all their official documents, and they shall
set ‘‘ Priest of the Gods, the Well-doers,”’ on
the rings which they wear, and shall engrave
it upon them. And they shall create
25 another order among the priests, who are in
the temples of EGypt, in addition to the four
orders which exist at the present time, and it
shall be called the fifth order of the Gods, the
Well-doers.
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
[IX.—THE CONSTITUTION AND
NEW
26
ORDER
event
hath
taken
[and]
RIGHTS OF THE
OF PRIESTS]
Since it hath happened
happiness,
271
that a propitious
place
with health
PuHaARAoH
(life,
and
strength,
health [to him!]), Prurmis, son of the GopsBROTHERS, was born on the 5th day of the
month
of Tis,
27 the day aforesaid being the beginning of the
working of much happiness for all men, the
priests who were made priests from the first
year, and those which were made priests up
to the first day of the fourth month of the
season
order,
Shemu,
shall be placed
in this
[new]
28 and their children for ever.
The priests who
were priests up to the first year shall remain
in the order in which they were; so likewise
shall it be
with
their children from this day onwards, and
29
their [names] shall be enrolled in the order
wherein are their fathers.
In the place of the
20 councillor-priests, which are selected yearly
from among the four
30 orders,
which already exist, and from each of
which 5 [priests] are selected, there shall be
25 councillor-priests. The 5 shall be drafted
from the 5 orders of the priests
ΩΤ
of the Gods, the Well-doers.
They shall share
in the things which belong to the 5 orders of
272
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
[priests of] the Gods, the Well-doers, and in
the offerings which are made, and in everything which is in the temples. And they
32 shall have
a master
of their order,
even
as
CELEBRATED
ON
have the four other orders.
[X.—A
FESTIVAL
THE
DAY
OF
SHALL
BE
THE
RISING
OF
SIRIUS]
Moreover, since it happeneth that festivals
are celebrated in honour of the Gods, the Welldoers, in the temples each month on the 5th
day, and on the gth day, and on the 25th day,
33 in accordance
written
with
in former
the
times,
decree
and
which
was
the people
are
wont to celebrate great festivals in honour of
the other gods, in EGypt yearly, a great
festival shall be celebrated yearly in honour of
34 PHARAOH (life, strength, health [to him !]),
’PTuURMIS, and the PHARAOH (510) (life, strength,
health
[to her!]),
BERENICE,
the
Gods,
the
Well-doers, in all the temples and in
35 all Ecypr on the day on which the star SpT-T
(SoTHIS,
or
the
DoG-STAr)
riseth,
which
is
called the beginning of the year in the writings
of the [College of the] House of Life, which
shall be celebrated in the oth year of the rst
day of the second month
Shemu (7.6. Summer)
36 on which
are
celebrated
of the season
the festival
of
of the
goddess Bast and the great festival procession
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
273
of Bast, which is the period when the crops are
gathered in, and the inundation of the NILE
taketh place. But although it happeneth
37 that the rising of the star delayeth a whole
day every four years, the day on which the
afore-mentioned festival is celebrated shall
not be changed, but the festival shall be
celebrated on
38 the 1st day of the second month of the season
of Shemu, on which day already in the goth
year it hath been celebrated. And the festival
shall be celebrated for a period of 5 days,
during which the people shall wear garlands
and libations shall be made, and burnt offer-
ings shall be offered up,
39 and all the other things which it is meet and
seemly to do shall be done.
[XI.—THE ADDITION OF A SIXTH EPAGOMENAL DAY TO THE CALENDAR]
And also in order to make it happen that
the seasons of the year may always do what
appertaineth to them in accordance with the
constitution of the heavens as it existeth at
the present day, and in order that it may not
happen that some of the festivals
40 which are celebrated in Ecypt, and which ought
to be celebrated
in the
winter,
come
to be
celebrated in the summer, the luminary (1.6. the
star) changing his place by one day in every
8
274
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
41 four years, and the other festivals which are
now celebrated in the summer come to be
celebrated in the winter, which hath actually
42 happened in past times, and would happen
again [now], with the year consisting of 360
days, and the five days which are appointed
to be added at the end of them. There shall
be added one
43 day as a festival to the Gods, the Well-doers,
every four years to the 5 additional days
which are added before the beginning of the
New
Year, so that
44 all men may know that what was lacking in
the seasons of the year, and in the year
[itself], and the things which must be known
concerning the motions of the heavenly bodies
(1.6. the laws of astronomy), and what taketh
place with them, have been corrected and
arranged
45 by the Gods, the Well-doers.
[XII.—THE
NICE, AND
SUDDEN
THE
DEATH
OF
STABLISHING
PRINCESS
OF HER
BERECULT]
And moreover since it hath happened that
the daughter which was born to PHARAOH (life,
strength, health [to him!]), Prurmis and the
PHARAOHESS (1.6. Queen) (life, health, strength
[to her !]), BERENICE, the
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To face p. 274.)
os
SY
οΟΥ
XIX.
12IL- AU
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
275
46 Gods, the Well-doers—they gave to her the
name of BERENICE, and made her to appear
as a Pharaohess (1.6. Queen)—being a virgin
departed suddenly
47 to heaven, the priests of Egypt who came to
PHARAOH (life, health, strength [to him !}),
annually, to the place where he was, forthwith
made great mourning on account of that which
had taken place,
48 and they made entreaty before PHARAOH
(life, strength, health [to him!]), and the
PHARAOHESS, and the desire had entered their
hearts to make the goddess (7.6. BERENICE) to
rest with
49 OsiRIs in the house of the god (7.e. temple) of
PJEYN-GUTI (CANopPUS), which is not only a
temple of the first class, but is also one of
those to which PHARAOH (life, strength, health.
[to him !])
50
and all the men of EGypT pay honour. When
it happeneth that they make OsiRIs in the
SEKTI-BoaT to enter into the afore-mentioned
temple annually,
51
in the house of the god of the temple of AMEN
of GrB, on the 29th day of the fourth month
of the season of Akhet, then all those who are
in the temples of the first rank shall offer up
burnt-offerings upon
have made for
the altars, which
they
$2
THE
276
ROSETTA
STONE
52 the temples of the first order for each of the
temples, on both sides of the court of the
temple. After these things they shall do
what is ordered to be done by the law for the
deification [of the princess] and the purification of her mourning,
53 and they shall pay honour to her, their hearts
being hot within them, and they shall do for
her what they are accustomed to do for APIS
and MNEVIS.
[XIII.—HONOURS
BERENICE
PAID
IN
SHALL
BE
PAID
SIMILAR
TO
THOSE
THE
DAUGHTER
OF
TO
SAME
MONTH
TO
THE
SUN-GOD]
PRINCESS
WHICH
ARE
THE
DEAD
[The priests decided] to pay everlasting
honours to the Pharaohess BERENICE,
54 the daughter of the Gods, the Well-doers, in
all the temples of EGypt.
Since it happened
that she entered among the gods in the first
month of the season Per-t,
59 which was the month wherein in times of old
the mummification of the daughter of the
Sun-god RA took place, whom he called his
uraeus (1.6. cobra), and gave her the name of
his eye, because he loved her, and they make
in her honour,
56 in the afore-mentioned month, processions of
boats in most of the temples of the first rank,
because
in that month
in times of old the
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
277
deification of the goddess took place, they shall
celebrate a festival and make a
57 procession of boats in honour of the Pharaohess
BERENICE,
Well-doers,
the daughter of the Gods, the
in all the temples of EGypT on
the 17th day of the first month of the season
Per-t, and they shall celebrate her
58 festival procession of boats and the purification of her mourning for four days on the first
occasion.
[XIV.—A
GOLDEN
WEARING
A
STATUE
SPECIAL
MADE
AND
SHALL
FESTAL
PROCESSIONS]
OF
THE
CROWN,
BE
CARRIED
PRINCESS,
SHALL
BE
IN
HER
And they shall set up a divine statue
gold, inlaid with [semi-precious] stones,
the temples of the first rank, [and]
of
in
59 in the temples of the second rank, in each and
every temple. And it shall rest in the sanctuary (or, shrine), and the minister of the god
(t.e. prophet) or one of the priests who shall
be chosen for the sanctuary in order to dress
the gods in their apparel, shall bear it before
him
60 on his breast when they come to celebrate the
festal processions and the festivals ot the other
gods, so that all men may see it and may pay
honour to it,
278
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
61 and they shall call it ‘‘ BERENICE, the Lady of
Virgins.” The crown of gold which is on the
head of the divine statue when the priests
exhibiteth
it, shall
be
different
from
that
which they shall place
62 on the statue of the Pharaohess BERENICE
her mother when they exhibit her. The crown
shall
be
made
of two
ears
of wheat,
and
between them there shall be an uraeus, and
there shall be behind it
63 a stalk of papyrus, of the same size as that
which is in the hand of the goddesses.
And
the tail of this uraeus shall twine itself
round the papyrus, so that it may come to
pass
64 that the name of the afore-mentioned crown
may be read ‘‘ BERENICE”’ in accordance with
the characters of the writing of the House of
Life. When men are about to celebrate the
days
65 of the ritual ceremonies of Isis, in the fourth
month of the season of Akhet, before the boat
procession of Osiris, the daughters of the
priests who are virgins shall make another
statue [of BERENICE, the Lady of Virgins,
and they shall offer up burnt offerings to it,
and they shall do in her honour the other things
which it is customary to do]! on the days of
1 The words in brackets are added from the second version
of the Decree.
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
279
66 the afore-mentioned festival. And the other
virgins also shall be at liberty to do that which
it is customary to do according to the regulations which are set down in writing.
67 And she shall also be praised by the Shmaiu
priestesses who have been chosen for the
service of the gods, they being crowned with
the crowns of
68 the various gods to whom they minister as
priestesses. The first ears of corn which shall
ripen, the Shmaiu priestesses shall carry away
and shall bring them
69 to the divine image of the goddess. And the
male singers, and the female singers, shall sing
to her daily praises, both on the days of the
festivals and on the days of the festivals of the
other gods,
with the hymns which the
70 in accordance
scribes of the House
of Life shall write, and
they shall give them to those who teach the
singers, who shall make copies of them on the
rolls of papyrus of the House of Life.
[XVI.—THE
BREAD
OF BERENICE]
Now, inasmuch as it is customary
to give food from the temple-revenues to the
priests in the temples as soon as they are
made priests, so let food be given to the
daughters of the priests, from the day of
280
THE
ROSETTA
72 their birth, from
STONE
the revenues
of the temples
of the gods, according to the measure which
the revenues of the temple (1.6. the offerings
to the gods) will permit the councillor-priests
in each of the temples
73 to allot to them.
The bread which shall be
given to the women of the priests shall be
[made] in a form different [from that of other
bread],
74 and “‘ Bread of Berenice ᾿᾿ is the name which
shall be given to it.
[The following is supplied from the text found
at Kom al-Hisn :
XVII.—THE
PUBLICATION
This DECREE,
OF
THE
DECREE]
let the scribes of the market
gate which are attached to each temple, and
the chief priests, and the scribes of the house
of the god, write it upon a slab of stone or
copper (bronze ?) in the writing of the House
of Life, [and] in the writing of books, and in
the writing of the Greeks. And they shall
set up the slab in a prominent place in the
temples of the first rank, [and] in the temples
of the second rank, [and] in the temples of
the third rank. Thus will be made manifest
clearly that the priests and their children
honour
the Gods,
the Well-doers,
is right and proper to do.
even
as it
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Senior
To face p. 280.)
OL
959
09
A<
PLATE
#
oT]
Ἧι
THE
DECREE
OF CANOPUS
THE
DECREE
OF
EGYPTIAN
TEXT:
[—THE
CANOPUS
RUNNING
DATING
OF
281
TRANSLATION
THE
STELE
1 On the seventh day of the month of
Apellaios, in the ninth year, [which is the
equivalent of] the seventeenth day of the
first month of the season of Per-t! for the
inhabitants
of Egypt,
under
the
Majesty
of the King of the South and
the North
(5.
Upper
and
Lower
Egypt), PToLemy,
the
everliving,
Ptolemy
the
beloved
of
Ptah,
son
(II) and
Arsinoé,
the
two
Brother
of
Gods,—
[when] the priest of Alexander, the deceased, and
of the two Brother Gods, and of the two WellDoing Gods, was Apollonides, 2 the son of Moschion, and Menecrateia, daughter of Philammon,
was the bearer
before Arsinoé,
of the basket (1.6. canephoros)
the Brother-loving (1.6. Phila-
delphus).
1 The Coptic Twse.
282
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
II.—INTRODUCTION
This day a DECREE [was passed].
The overseers
of the temples, the ministers
of
the god (prophets ?), the priests who presided
over the mysteries, the priests who wash (?)
3 [and] array the gods in their apparel, the scribes
of the Book OF THE GOD, the sages, the fathers of
the gods, and the libationer
priests, in all their
grades, who came from the two sides of Egypt
(t.e. from the Eastern and Western banks of the
Nile), and from the South and North of Egypt,
[for] the fifth day of the month of Dios, on which
the festival of the new year (t.e. birthday) of His
Majesty is celebrated, and [for] the twenty-fifth
day of the same month, whereon His Majesty
received 4 his great office from his father, and
assembled in the house of the god of the two
Well-Doing Gods, which is in Peguti (Canopus),
and they decreed thus :—
IlII.—THE
BY
BENEFITS
PTOLEMY
III
CONFERRED
AND
HIS
ON
THE
SISTER-WIFE
TEMPLES
BERENICE
Inasmuch as the King of the South and of the
North, PToLEeMy, everliving, beloved of Ptah,
the son of Ptolemy and Arsinoé, the two Brother
Gods, and Queen BERENICE, his sister and wife,
the two Well-Doing Gods, have at all times conferred many great benefits 5 on the temples of
Egypt and magnify the majesty of the gods in the
greatest manner possible.
THE
IV.—THEIR
OF
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
MAJESTIES
ENDOWED
SACRED
ANIMALS,
THE
BACK
THE
PERSIA
TO
STATUES
OF
283
THE
SHRINES
AND
BROUGHT
THE
GODS
FROM
EGYPT
Moreover, they take care to provide at all times
for the things (1.6. the cult) of Apis, [and] Mnevis,
[and] the sacred beasts which are revered in every
temple in Egypt, and they gave (1.e. spent) great
riches, and very many provisions 6 to maintain
them in a fitting state.
[And] the statues of the
gods which the debased (or, vile) men of Persia
carried away from Egypt—-His Majesty marched
into
the lands
of Asia, he rescued
them,
[and]
brought them back to Egypt, [and] set them in
their places in the temples, wherefrom they had
been carried off previously.
V.—THE
KING
PROVIDED
EGYPT
AND
WAGED
FOR THE
WAR
IN
PROTECTION
FOREIGN
OF
LANDS
He protected Egypt against those who would
fight 7 and at the same time he himself waged
war outside its [frontiers] in remote valleys
against foreigners of many lands, and [against]
their captains who ruled over them. They ({.6.
PTOLEMY and his Queen) governed righteously
all the inhabitants of Egypt, and all the natives
of every land who were in subjection to Their
Majesties.
284
THE
VI.—THE
KING’S
Now, there came
ROSETTA
STONE
FAMINE-RELIEF
a year when
MEASURES
there was a low
Nile in 8 the time of Their Majesties. And the
hearts of all the inhabitants of Egypt became sad
when they remembered the calamities which had
taken place in days of old, in the time of the early
kings, and had fallen on the dwellers in Egypt
when a low Nile took place in their time. Then
did His Majesty himself and his sister 9 pay good
heed
to the
matter,
and
their
hearts
warmed
towards those who dwelt in the houses of the
gods [1.e. temples], and towards all the inhabitants
of Egypt. They pondered over the matter very
deeply and frequently, and they remitted very
many of the taxes with the intention of keeping
the people alive. They caused corn to be brought
to Egypt from Eastern Retnu (Syria), from the
land of Kefth-t (Keft6), and from the Island of
Sbinai (Cyprus), which is in the midst of the
Green 10 Great (1.6. the Mediterranean Sea), and
from many other foreign lands. And they (t.e.
Their Majesties) expended very much money in
purchasing
[the grain] for which they paid an
exceedingly high price, in order to save the lives
of the people who were in the land of Egypt—
thus they made known for time unending their
beneficence and their gracious qualities (or, merits)
to those who are living at the present time, and
to those who shall come after them. Therefore
have the gods made to be permanent their
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
285
positions as Ruler[s] of the Two Lands, in return
for these [deeds], 11 and they have rewarded
them with benefits of every sort and kind which
they can possibly have for all time.
VII.—THE
PRIESTS
HONOURS
DECIDE
DUE
TO
TO
INCREASE
THEIR
MAJESTIES
THE
Strength and health !
The priests of Egypt have determined in their
minds to increase in many ways the ceremonial
honours paid to the King of the South and of the
North,
the everliving, the beloved of Ptah, and
Queen Berenice, the two Well-Doing Gods, in the
temples, and those who are paid to the two
Brother Gods, who begot them, and 12 those
which are paid to the two Saviour Gods, who
created them, and to magnify them.
VIII.—THE
PRIESTS
FIFTH
DECREE
ORDER
OF
BE
KNOWN
WELL-DOING
GODS
ARE
TO
THE
PRIESTS;
AS
THE
FORMATION
ALL
THE
PRIESTS
OF
A
PRIESTS
OF
THE
The priests who are in all the temples of Egypt,
all of them, shall [henceforward] be called ‘‘ Priests
of the Well-Doing Gods.”
[This title] shall be
added to the title of their rank as prophets, and
it shall be inscribed in all [their] documents, and
the title ‘‘ Prophet of the two Well-Doing Gods ”
shall be engraved on the rings which they wear
286
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
on theirhands.
And they shall constitute another
13 order of priests from among all the priests who
are in the temples, in addition to the four orders
of priests which exist at the present day, and it
shall be called the ‘‘ Fifth Order of Priests of the
two Well-Doing Gods.”’
IX.—THE
PRIESTS
SELECTION
OF
AND
PRIVILEGES
Inasmuch
THEIR
THE
NEW
AND
ORDER
OF
STATUS
as there took place the lucky event,
with strength and health, namely, the birth of
the King of the South and of the North, the everliving, the beloved
of Ptah, the son
of the two
Brother Gods, on the fifth day of the month of
Dios, which day was the beginning of 14 great
happiness and prosperity for all men; the priests
who were inducted by the king into the temples
from the first year of His Majesty, and also those
who were inducted [by him] up to the fourth
month! of the season of Shemu (1.6. the Summer)
of his ninth year, shall be placed in this Order of
priests, and likewise their children for ever. And
the priests who were priests up to the first year
shall remain in the Orders of priests in which 15
they were up to that time. So likewise shall it
be for their children henceforward for ever, being
inscribed (or, enrolled) in the Orders of the priesthood wherein their fathers were before them.
» In Coptic uecwpH.,
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
287
And instead of the twenty priest-councillors, who
are chosen each year from the four Orders of
priests which already exist, five persons from each
Order of priests, there shall be twenty-five priestcouncillors, 16 and the five priests who are to be
added [to the twenty] shall be drawn from the
Fifth Order of the Well-Doing Gods. And there
shall be given to them a share in what is possessed
by the Five Orders of priests of the Well-Doing
Gods, and in the offerings, and in the purificatory
gifts to the house of the god, and in everything
which appertaineth to them in the temples. And
this Fifth Order shall have a Director (Phylarch)
as prophet, even as have the other four Orders.
X.—A FESTIVAL IN HONOUR OF THE WELL-DOING
GODS SHALL BE CELEBRATED ON THE DAY OF
THE RISING OF SOTHIS (SIRIUS, THE DOGSTAR)
Inasmuch as there are celebrated festivals 17
in honour of the Well-Doing Gods in all the
temples every month, [namely] on the fifth day,
and on the ninth day, and on the twenty-fifth
day in accordance with a Decree which was
written
down
in time past;
and
as, moreover,
there is also celebrated each year throughout
Egypt a festival in honour of the great gods, and
a great
procession
[is made],
so
likewise
there
shall be celebrated a great festival, with a pro-
cession, each year in honour of the King of the
288
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
South and North, Ptolemy, the everliving,
beloved of Ptah, 18 and Queen Berenice,
the
the
Well-Doing Gods, in the two halves (z.e. the right
and left banks) of Egypt, and throughout the
whole extent of Egypt, on the day when the star
Sept (Sothis, Sirius) appeareth, the name whereof
is called in the registers of the House of Life,
“The Festival of the Opening of the Year ”’ (1.6.
the New Year), and which in [this] month is
celebrated on the first day of the second month?
of the
season
of Summer,
in which
month
is
celebrated the Festival of the New Year of Bast
(Bubastis), and the great processional festival of
the goddess
Bast,
because
the
time
for the
19
in-gathering of all the crops, and the inundation
of the Nile taketh place therein. Now, although
it happeneth that the rising of the star Sothis
changeth to another day ever four years, the
day of the celebration of this festival shall not
be changed because of this, but it shall be celebrated on the first day of the second month of
the season of Summer, on which day, in [this]
ninth year, it was originally celebrated. 20 This
festival shall be celebrated for five days, and [the
people] shall wear garlands of flowers on their
heads,
and offerings shall be laid on the altars,
and libations shall be made, and every kind of
thing which it is customary to offer [in the
temples] shall be offered.
1 In Coptic Nawne.
ταῖς
=
Se
LD
LAINE
Nea AI bale ΤΕτ ΤΡ, DUA
Loobheoue = ΦΊΩΙ
ΞΔ
ΞΞῚ
a
Ae
SERVES
ΠΕΡΕΕΟΣ
Per
HAS
λα
ea
SOAS
Pe
ΕΥ̓Ὁ
ἀπ
ἘΞ ee
Tee ΠΕ
ΙΧΙΞΑΙΠΣΚ
LS
ἀμ: Pe
ΞΟ
Po
ἈΞ
SASS
Wi
Psa
Ccman
eat
SUL
eA
Veahioulsioaw
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SIC
Vasa
ΙΑ
ween
wihZW
orydA]So101Fj
“yxey soul ‘61-1
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SUP
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AUN
CSV BV KASS
MN
AGT
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AMNESIA
ZIES
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Rm
To face p. 283.]
ee
PVATE
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᾿
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ι
᾿
ὰ
THE
XI,—A
TO
SIXTH
THE
DECREE
OF
EPAGOMENAL
CALENDAR
CANOPUS
DAY
EVERY
289
SHALL
BE
FOUR
YEARS
ADDED
Now in order to make it to happen that the
seasons of the year may perform what hath been
allotted
to them
at every period, according
the plan whereby heaven
is established
to
at the
present 21 day, and in order that it may not
happen that the festivals which are celebrated
throughout all Egypt in the season of Per-t (i.e.
the Winter), come to be celebrated some time in
the season of Shemu (Summer), because the
rising of Sothis changeth one day in every four
years,
and
contrarywise
in
times
to
come,
those festivals will be celebrated in the season
of Shemu
(Summer), which at the present
time are celebrated in the season of Per-t
(Winter), even as they did in the time 22
of the ancestors.
And this would happen now
if the year consisted of three hundred and
sixty days, and the five days which it hath
been
decided
to add
to them,
at the[ir]
end.
Therefore from this day there shall be added one
day to the festival of the two Well-Doing Gods
every four years, and it shall be added to the five
days which are added before the Festival of the
New Year. Thus it shall happen that all men
shall know that the little [time] which was lacking
in the fixing of the seasons, 23 and the year, and
the
matters
which
[concern]
the
laws
of the
ah
290
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
knowledge of the roads of the heavens, have been
set in order and made correct in so far as it is
possible to do so, by the Well-Doing Gods.
XII.—THE
FOR
CEREMONIAL
THE
DEATH
MOURNING
OF
OF THE
PRINCESS
PRIESTS
BERENICE
Now the King of the South and of the North,
Ptolemy,
the
everliving,
the
beloved
of Ptah,
and the Lady of the Two Lands (Egypt), Berenice,
the two Well-Doing Gods, had a daughter, who
was called by her name Berenice, and she was
raised [to the rank of] Queen, 24 and it happened
that
this
goddess,
who
was
a virgin,
entered
heaven suddenly. And the priests, who came
from [all parts of] Egypt to the King year by
year, came to the place where His Majesty was,
and they straightway made a great mourning
because of the event which had happened (1.6.
the death of the Princess). They made supplication before the King and Queen—having the
intention in their hearts—to allow 25 this goddess
to rest with Osiris in the temple of Pegut, which
is among the temples of the first order, because
it is the greatest temple of them all, and because
it is the principal place of worship of the King
and
the
inhabitants
of Ta-Mer-t,
all of them.
Now when Osiris in the Sektt Boat is [permitted]
to enter into this temple, at the [appointed] time
of the year, from
the temple of Amen
of Garb,
~
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
291
26 from Re-hent,! on the twenty-ninth day of the
fourth month? of the season Akht, all those who
are in the temples of the first rank offer up burnt
offerings upon the altars of the temples of the
first rank, on the right hand and on the left in the
forecourt of this temple.
[And] after these things
everything which it is customary to do was done,
in respect of the deification of the Princess, and
they performed on her behalf the purification of
her mourning 27 in splendid fashion (or, in a
worshipful manner). Their hearts were on fire
even as is customary for Apis and Mnevis.®
XIII.—DIVINE
HONOURS
SIMILAR
ARE
PAID
TO THE
DAUGHTER
RAS
PARE = LOS
BE
PAID
ἼΤῸ
TO
THOSE
WHICH
OF THE
SUN-GOD
ΤῊ
SPRINGESS
BERENICE
They (z.e. the priests) came to a decision to pay
perpetual honours to Princess Berenice, the
daughter of the two Well-Doing Gods, in all the
temples throughout Egypt. For it happened
that she entered in among the gods in the first
month of the season Per-t,* and it was in this
same month 28 that, in times of old, the daughter
1 A name for the mouth of the Canopic arm of the Nile.
2 In Coptic XOIA2K.
8 I.e. they regarded the dead princess as holy, and they
buried her with the same care as they would have buried an
Apis Bull or a Mnevis Bull.
“ In Coptic Twese.
292
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
of the Sun-god Ra entered heaven—now he called
her name ‘Eye of Ra” and “ Mehent,” the
uraeus on his forehead, because he loved her, and
they (1.6. the priests) in days of old celebrated
festivals in her honour, and made processions of
boats, in the great temples among the temples
of the
first
order
in this
month,
wherein
the
deification of Her Majesty (7.e. the daughter of
Ra) took place. And a festival, and a boatprocession, shall be made for Princess Berenice, the
daughter of 29 the two Well-Doing Gods, in all the
temples throughout Egypt, in the first month of the
season Per-t, beginning on the seventeenth day,
and the boat-procession shall last four days, and
the ceremony of the purification of her mourning
shall be [performed] as on the first occasion.
XIV.—A
GOLD
STATUE
BE
CARRIED
IN
SPECIAL
CROWN,
IS TO
TO
OF THE
PRINCESS
BERENICE,
PROCESSIONS,
WITH
BE
A
MADE
And they shall set up a divine statue of this
goddess [made] of gold and inlaid with every kind
of precious stone, in every temple of the first
order and in every temple of the second order,
and its 30 pedestal (?) shall be placed in the house
of the god.
A Hem
priest, or one of the priests
who are selected for [service] in the august holy
place, to array the gods in their apparel, shall on
the day of the festival in which
carried in procession,
the gods are
and at the festivals of all
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
293
the gods, carry the statue in the procession held
in the embrace of his arms, so that all the people
may see how the statue is adored in its sanctity.
The name of the statue shall be called ‘‘ Berenice,
31 Queen of the Virgins.” The crown which is
on the head of the divine statue shall not be like
that which is on the head{s] of the statues of her
mother, the Horus Berenice.1
It shall be made
of two ears of corn, with an uraeus between them.
Behind
the uraeus shall be an upright stalk of
papyrus, similar to that which the goddesses hold
in their hands. The tail of the uraeus shall be
twined round 32 this stalk so that the appearance (?) of the crown shall proclaim the name of
Berenice according to the characters [found] in the
writings of the House of Life.’
XV.—A
BE
SECOND
SET
PAY
GOLD
UP, AND
HONOUR
TO
STATUE
THE
OF
BERENICE
PRIESTLY
VIRGINS
SHALL
SHALL
IT
Moreover, when the days of the Gaaugaau
[mysteries of Isis ?] are celebrated in the fourth
month
of the season
procession
of Akht,
before the boat-
of Osiris, the virgins and women
of
1 Ptolemy was called Horus, and Berenice was the female
Horus
* The characters referred to are clearly hieroglyphs, but it
is equally clear that they must have had in Ptolemaic times
phonetic values different from those given to them in Pharaohic
times.
294
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
the priests shall cause another statue of Berenice,
the Queen
of Virgins,
to be
made,
and
burnt
offerings shall be offered up, 33 and all the other
offerings which it is customary to make on days
of festival shall also be made.
And it is [permitted] to other virgins to act in a similar manner
in respect of these things for this goddess at their
good pleasure. And this goddess shall be hymned
also by the Shemait priestesses who are chosen to
minister to the gods, and they shall be crowned
with the crowns of the gods whose priestesses
they are. When also the harvest cometh these
priestesses shall take first of all ears of corn and
shall carry them forward and 34 present them to
the divine statue of this goddess. And her Ka
shall be praised by companies of singers, both
men
and
women,
daily, and at all the festivals
and processions of the gods, with the hymns
which have been composed and chosen by the
sages of the House of Life, and have been given
to the directors who train the singers, and are
written likewise upon the rolls [of papyri] of the
House of Life.
XVI.—PROVISION
SHALL
DAUGHTERS OF THE
OF BERENICE ”
BE
MADE
FOR
THE
PRIESTS.
THE ‘“‘ CAKES
Now seeing that [food from] the divine offerings
is granted to the priests in the temples, when
they are introduced 35 by the King into the house
THE
DECREE
OF
CANOPUS
295
of the god, it is permitted to give subsistence to
the women-children of the priests [from the day
when they are born] from the divine offerings of
the gods, together with the food which is allotted
[to them] by the priestly stewards in all the
temples, in proportion to the offerings [made].
The bread which is given 36 to the women of the
priests shall be made and distinguished as gefen
bread,
and
its name
shall be called
‘‘ Bread
of
Berenice:
XVII.—THE
MANNER
OF
PUBLICATION
OF
THE
DECREE
Let
this
Decree
be written
(or, copied)
by
councillors (or, directors, or stewards) in the
temples, and the governors of the temples, and
the scribes of the house of the god.
And let it
be engraved upon a tablet 37 of stone or copper
(brass ?) in the writing of the House of Life
(7.6. in hieroglyphs), and in the writing of books
(1.6. Demotic), and in the writing of the Greeks.
[The tablet] shall be set up in the courtyard of
the people, in [each of] the temples of the first
order, and in the temples of the second order, and
in the temples of the third order, so that every
person whatsoever may be made to see the
honour which is paid by the priests of the temples
of Egypt to the two Well-Doing Gods and to their
children in the manner which is right and customary.
296
THE
ROSETTA
STONE
Π
THE
DECREE
MEMPHIS
IN
OF THE
PRIESTHOOD
ASSEMBLED
HONOUR
OF
IV
PTOLEMY
AT
PHILOPATOR
The existence of this DECREE became known
to the learned world through the purchase of a
fragment of a copy of it cut upon a grey granite
stele which the Egyptian Museum
acquired from a native dealer in 1902.
in CAIRO
It is now
numbered
fragment
35635.
The
texts
on
the
were published by AHMAD BEy KAMAL and W.
SPIEGELBERG in the Catalogue générale, in the
section of that work entitled Siéles ptolémaiques
et romatines, Cairo, 1904-5, vol. i, p. 218, and vol. ii,
plate LXXIV, No. 31088 (see notes 2 and 3 in
H. GAUTHIER and H. Sotras in their Décret
trilingue, Cairo, 1925, p. v). In April, 1923, some
natives of ABO SuUWER, who were digging out soil
at TALL AL-MaskuHOTAuH, to use as top-dressing
for their fields, discovered by accident a large
fragment,
about
one-half,
of a sandstone
stele
inscribed with portions of the versions of the
Decree in Greek, Demotic and hieroglyph. This
monument
is now
in the Egyptian
Museum
in
Cairo, and bears the No. 47806, and is commonly
known as Pithom Stele, No. II.
THE
DECREE
OF
MEMPHIS
297
On the rounded portion of the stele is sculptured
the winged disk of Horus of BEHutT and Horus of
MESEN, and below the disk is a vertical cartouche
containing the name and titles of ProLEmy IV
PHILOPATOR.
On the left are figures of the King
and his sister-wife ARSINOE. The King is mounted
on horseback, and is spearing with his long Macedonian lance a kneeling prisoner, who is thrust towards him by the god Tem, or ATEM.
is styled “ life of Tyexu,=
This god, who
— τ ” (Succoth ?),
is promising to give to the King long life, and
power, and
are figures
many Set Festivals.
Behind TEmMu
of OsIRIS, HER-SMAI-TAUI, Horus
of An, Hatuor and Isis.
The hieroglyphic text
is cut below the sculptured portion of the stele,
the Demotic is on the back, and the Greek on the
side.
For a full description see GAUTHIER
Sottas,
Un Deécret trilingue
Ptolémée IV, Cairo, 1925.
en
l’honneur
and
de
Curiously enough, the Demotic version of the
DECREE, which contains 42 lines, is in an almost
complete state, and from it the general historical
contents of the DECREE can be ascertained, though
there are words and passages in it which have not,
up to the present, been translated satisfactorily.
The
first scholar
to work at it was
SOTTAS,
who
published a facsimile of the text with a transliteration, and a French translation, and an elaborate
commentary
in
(pp. 32-64).
A German translation of the Demotic
the
work
mentioned
above
298
THE
“ROSETTA
STONE
text was made and published by W. SPIEGELBERG
under the title of ‘“‘ Beitrage zur Erklarung des
neuen dreisprachigen Priesterdekretes zu Ehren
des Ptolemaios
Philopator’”’
(see the Sztzungs-
berichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-philologische und historische
Klasse, Jahrgang 1925, 4 Abhandlungen, Miinchen,
1925). From the translation of the last-named
scholar the following English rendering has been
made :—
PRIESTLY
DECREE
IN
HONOUR
OF
PTOLEMY
IV
PHILOPATOR
[I.—THE
DATING
OF THE
DECREE]
I On the first day of the month of ARTEMESIOS,
which is, according to the reckoning of the
Egyptians, the first day of the month of
PAOPHI, in the sixth year of the Young Horus,
the strong
one,
whom
his father
caused
to
appear as the PHARAOH (KING), the lord of
the uraei (1.6. the two crowns, each with a
cobra), whose might is great,
2 who is pious of heart towards the gods, who
protecteth men (or, mankind), who is over
his
enemies,’
who
maketh
and
illumineth
the
temples
1 The allusion is to Horus,
stood upon his back.
Ecypt
with
happy
light,
who
who, having conquered Set,
THE
DECREE
OF
MEMPHIS
299
stablisheth the laws which ΤΉΟΤΗ, the GreatGreat, the lord of the Set festivals,
like unto PrTau, the Great, the Pharaoh like
unto PHRE (the Sun-god Ra), Pharaoh of the
Upper Country and of the Lower Country
(Upper and Lower Egypt), son of the Gods,
the Well-doers (1.6. Proremy III and Queen
BERENICE), whom PrTau hath chosen [to be
Pharaoh], to whom Pura hath given victories,
the living image [of AmEN],
the Pharaoh PtRumis (PTOLEMAIOS), the everliving, beloved of Isis—when PToLEmy, the
son of AEROPOS, was priest of Alexander, and
of the Brother Gods, and of the Gods, the Well-
doers, and [RHODA (?)],
of PURN, was
οι daughter
brother-loving Arsinoé.
canephoros
of the
[II.—THE ASSEMBLING OF THE PRIESTS AT
MEMPHIS]
On this day DECREE :
The chief priests, and the prophets, and the
priests, who enter into the holy-of-holies to
robe [the gods],
and the writers of the Books OF THE GODS
(7.6. the fan-bearers), and the scribes of the
House
of Life (1.6. the sacred scribes), and the
other priests who have come from the temples
of Ecypt to Mrempuis to stand before the
THE:
300
ROSETTA
‘STONE
Pharaoh at the time when he returned to
EcypT in order to present to him bouquets of
flowers, and the Talismans
.
.
N and to offer sacrifices, and burnt offerings, and
libations, and to perform the other things
which it is customary to perform on the
occasion of such a festival, these having
gathered themselves together in the temple of
ΜΈΜΡΗΙΘ declare, [saying],
[III.—THE REASONS FOR MAKING THIS DECREE]
Inasmuch as it hath
beneficence of Pharaoh,
happened that the
[PTOLEMy, the son
of]
ioe) PTOLEMyY
ARSINOE
and
the
(Pharaohess)
(Queen)
(570), the Gods, the Well-doers, hath
conferred benefits on the service of the gods,
and hath shown concern at all times for that
which appertaineth to their worship, it hath
come to pass that [all] the gods [of EGypt]
and
their goddesses,
were
present
with him,
and showed him the road, and protected him
at the time when he was marching to the
country of the ASSYRIANS (1.6. SYRIANS), and
the country of the people of Kuor (:.6. the
PHOENICIANS). They made him see revelations, and made
announcements
to him, and
gave him an oracle through a dream, saying
1 Read ‘‘ BERENICE.”
ΞΊΞ
ΘΙ τ ΞΗΞ eset Sh
opi
<=
+
To face ἢ. 300.)
911,
ΘΘΙΌΘΩ
yo
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‘sndoueg A[Zorarpy
ord
tind
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Syre
LSS VRP PAL. taki) PMY
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Ka De
ΤΗΣ:
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HU oS TEV
WEVSLs
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SRONIG
NisUT Bye
OeΝΕ ΚΟΙΞΩΞΟ
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KG
272
le
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n
he VEST
MUI
nae
LWW
PEM? ISLESISAe
eT
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ἩΕΙΥΔΙΤΑ
oHTeΠΡΣΕΣ eM
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Τα (ol
WN ates NS ice
Se SIPLIS
POP ΜΈ ΠΝ
TE
HAI
ἦρε ΦΕΊΕ
ΙΕ PN Sees
Tal oePeale Ne
aS
Ws
RAE
TPP
ATTT Sa
HAVEL
ΕΣ UIPS
CACM
SSSRY LTE
EIOAS
RO ΠΗ
ὈΞΈΣΙ ΤΙΣΙ. ΟΙΡΕΞΞΤ
ΣΙ ΕἸΣΙΝUNS
ΞΙΞΆΙ
ΞΕΣΙ
ΗΝ
PLATE
XX.
THE
DECREE
OF
MEMPHIS
301
that he would overcome his enemies, and [that
Io
they would never]
be far away from him in times of danger, but
would be a protection to him to keep him safe.
[IV.—THE
BATTLE
OF RAPHIA]
On the first day of the month of PAcHons,
in the fifth year [of his reign], he marched out
from PELuUsIuM and fought with ANTIOCHUS
II
at a city called RApPuHIA,
near the frontier of Egypt, which lis to the east
of BETHELEA and PASANUFER.
On the tenth
day of the same month he defeated him ina
great and splendid manner. Those of his enemies
who in the course of this fight drew close to him
12
he laid out dead before him, even as in days
of old Horus, the son of Isis, had done with
his foes.
He pressed ANTIOCHUS
so closely
that he was obliged to throw away his crown
and his royal hat (helmet ?). He fled with his
bodyguard (?), there being only a very few
[men] who stayed with him,
13 after his defeat in a miserable and sad manner.
The greater number of his soldiers suffered
sore want. He saw the best of his friends
perish in a miserable fashion. They suffered
14 hunger and thirst. Everything that he left
behind him was seized as booty (or, spoil).
Only with the greatest exertion was he able
to reach his home, and he suffered bitter grief.
THE
302
[V.—THE
ROSETTA
SPOIL CAPTURED
STONE
BY PTOLEMY
IV]
Pharaoh took as spoil many people and all
the elephants.
He made himself master of
much gold and silver, and valuable possessions,
which
15 were found in the various places which
ANTIOCHUS had captured, and which had been
brought there under his rule. Pharaoh made
them all to be carried to Egypt.
[VI.—PTOLEMY’S TRIUMPHAL PROGRESS
THROUGH THE COUNTRY]
Pharaoh made a progress through the other
regions which were in his (1.6. Antiochus’s)
kingdom.
He went into the temples which
were there.
τό He offered burnt
offerings and hbations, and
all the inhabitants who were in the cities
received him with joyful hearts, and made
‘feasts, and awaited his arrival with the shrines
of the gods—in whose hearts is strength—and
they
crowned
themselves
offered up burnt
with
crowns,
and
offerings, and offerings of
cakes (?).
[VII.—THE HONOURS PAID TO PTOLEMY IV]
17 Many people brought him a gold crown, and
announced
royal
statue
that they intended
to set up a
in his honour,
to build
and
a
temple. It came to pass that the King was
on the path of a man of God.
THE
DECREE
OF
MEMPHIS
303
[VIII.—PTOLEMY’S CARE FOR THE EGYPTIAN
TEMPLES IN SYRIA]
The statues of the gods which were in the
temples, and had been damaged by ANTIOCHUS,
18 Pharaoh
commanded others to be made in
their stead, and set in their places. He gave
much
them,
gold, and silver, and precious stones for
and also for the equipment of the
temples which those men had carried off, and
he concerned himself to have them replaced.
The properties
τ which had been given in olden time to the
temples, and which had become greatly reduced, Pharaoh commanded
their original values.
to be restored to
In order that nothing
might be wanting in respect of that which it
was customary to do for the gods, as soon as
he heard that much injury had been done to
the images (or, bas-reliefs) of the Egyptian
gods,
20
21
he issued a splendid order to the regions over
which he ruled outside Egypt, that no man
should do them further injury, wishing that
every alien should understand the greatness
of the consideration which was in his heart
for the gods of Egypt. The bodies (2.e.
mummies) of those (t.e. the sacred animals)
which were found [there] he caused
to be transported to Ecypt, and he caused
them to be prepared for burial with honour,
THE
304
ROSETTA
STONE
and to be buried in their tombs.
Moreover,
those which were found to be damaged he
caused to be brought back with due ceremony
and
honour
to EGyptT,
and
conducted
into
their temples. Moreover, he gave careful
thought
22 for the images of the gods, which had been
carried out of EGypT into the territory of the
ASSYRIANS (1.€. SYRIANS), and the territory
of the people of Kor (7.e. PHOENICIA), at the
time when the MEDEs laid waste the temples
of Ecypt.
He commanded that careful search
should be made for them. Those which were
found, in addition to those which his father
had brought back to EGypt, he caused to
be brought back to Egypt, and at the same
time
23 he celebrated a feast [in their honour], and
offered up a burnt offering before them. He
caused them to be restored to their temples
wherefrom in past times they had been carried
off.
[IX.—PTOLEMY ESTABLISHES A FORTIFIED
CAMP IN SYRIA]
He caused a fortified camp for his troops
to be made, and he remained there as long
as
24 his enemies wished to come to fight against
him. He passed many days outside that same
THE
place.
DECREE
OF
MEMPHIS
305
As soon as they were good again he
released his troops. They plundered their
cities. As they could not protect them they
destroyed them so that it might be apparent
to all men that it was the might of the gods
which had done this thing, and
25 that it was a sinful thing to fight against him.
He marched away from that region, having
made himself master of all their settlements
in 21 days. After the treason (defection ?) of
the officers of the troops he made a treaty with
ANTIOCHUS for two years and two months.
He returned to EGypt
26 on the Feast of Lamps, the Birthday of
Horus (October 12 9), after a campaign of four
months.
The inhabitants of EcypT welcomed
him and were glad because he had protected
the temples and had also delivered all the
people in Ecypr. They did everything which
was necessary for his reception, in the lavish
and splendid
fashion
which was appropriate to his heroic
27
deeds. He journeyed through EGypT in a
barge (or, ship), and those who were in the
temple waited for him at the landing-places
(or, quays) with the equipment and the other
things which men are accustomed to bring
on such a journey, and they were crowned
with garlands, and celebrated
brought
a festival, and
υ
THE
306
ROSETTA
[X.—PTOLEMY
28 burnt
offerings,
STONE
RE-ENDOWS
and
drink
THE
TEMPLES]
offerings,
and
many sacrificial gifts.
He went into the
temples and offered up a burnt offering.
He gave many revenues in addition to
those which he had given at an earlier
period.
The images of the gods, which
had been for a long time wanting among
those which
were
in shrines,
and
also those
which had been somewhat damaged, he
caused
29 others to be set in their places, [and made
them to be] as they were formerly. He
expended much gold and precious stones on
these and on all the other things which they
needed.
He caused much temple-furniture
and equipment to be made of gold and silver,
although he had already incurred a _ vast
expense for that campaign, and had given
300,000 pieces of gold in the form of golden
crowns
30 to his Army. He bestowed upon the priests,
and the dwellers in the temples (templeservants ?), and the other inhabitants throughout EGyptT many benefactions, and at the
same time thanked the gods, that they had
fulfilled for him everything which they had
promised him.
THE
DECREE
[XI.—THE
DECREE
OF
MEMPHIS
OF THE
307
PRIESTS]
31 WiTH Goop Luck!
It hath entered into the hearts of the priests
of the temples of Egypt, the honours which
are paid to Pharaoh ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ, the everliving, the beloved of Isis, and to his sister, the
Pharaohess (Queen) ARSINOE, the FatherLoving Gods, in the temples, and those which
are paid to the Gods, the Well-doers, who
begot them,
32
and those which are paid to the Brother Gods
and to the Saviour Gods, their forefathers, to
increase. And a royal statue of Pharaoh
PTOLEMY, the everliving, the beloved of Isis,
shall be set up, and it shall be called “‘ PTroLemy,
the Avenger of his Father, whose victory is
beautiful,”
33 and also a statue
of his sister, ARSINOE,
the
Father-Loving Gods, in the temples of Egypt,
in each and in every temple, in the most conspicuous part of the temple, and they shall be
made in the Egyptian style. And they shall
cause a statue [of the City-god]
34 to be seen in the temple, and they shall set it
up by the side of the table of offerings (altar ?)
at which the royal statue of the Pharaoh
stands, [the City-god] giving him (1.6. the
Pharaoh) a sword of victory. The priests who
are in the temples shall minister to the statues
U2
THE
308
ROSETTA
STONE
thrice daily, and shall set the temple equipments
before
them,
and for them
35 shall perform the other ceremonies which are
right and proper just as they are performed
for the other gods during their festivals and
processions and the days appointed [by law].
The figure of the Pharaoh which is painted
(510) on the stele, and which shall be painted
(sic) above the text [οἱ the DECREE], shall
represent him mounted upon a horse, clad in
a suit of armour, and he shall appear wearing
the crown of Pharaoh.
36 And he shall be represented in the act of
spearing a kneeling figure of a king with a
long spear in his hand, which shall resemble
the spear which the victorious Pharaoh used
in battle. And they (7.e. the priests) shall
celebrate a festival and [make a] procession
in the temples, and in all Egypt, in honour of
Pharaoh PTOLEMY, the everliving, the beloved
of Isis,
37 from the tenth day of the month Pachons,
the day whereon Pharaoh conquered his
enemy (?), for five days, yearly, and they shall
wear garlands, and offer up burnt offerings and
drink offerings, and do the other things which
it is right and proper to do, and they shall
do according to the beautiful command ...
BON cena The shrines of the Father-Loving Gods
shall be exhibited in procession on these days,
THE
DECREE
OF
MEMPHIS
309
and a bouquet of flowers shall be brought
to Pharaoh in the temple on these aforementioned days. Inasmuch as it happened
that
Pharaoh
[PTOLEMy,
the
everliving,
the
beloved of Isis]...
the Saviour Gods, to whom he had paid
honour on that day, having already paid them
ὍΣ.
honour, and the priests shall keep the first
ten days in every month as a festival, and
they shall offer up burnt offerings and drink
offerings, and they [shall do the other things
which it is right and proper to do at the other
festivals]
40 on these days in each month. That which is
prepared for the burnt offerings shall be distributed among [all those who perform servicesmethe temple, ... >* the" priestss and’ the
Scripest as) :|
[The last two lines are much mutilated, but
they seem to have contained an order from the
priests to the effect that on the ten days burnt
offerings, etc., similar to those which it was
customary
to offer to the great gods on the
days of their festivals, must be offered to the
statue of Pharaoh
PTOLEMyY,
the
everliving,
the beloved of Isis, which is called ‘“‘ Pharaoh
ῬΤΟΙΈΜΥ, the Avenger of his Father,’’ whose
victory is beautiful, so that it may be made
manifest
to everyone
that
all who
EcypT honour the Father-Loving Gods.]
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
AKERBLAD, J. D.
Lettre
sur
Vinscription
égyp-
trenne de Rosette, Paris, 1802.
AMEILHON,
H. Ῥ.
Eclaircissement,
BaILey, J. Hueroglyphicorum
Cambridge, 1816.
ΒΑΠΙΈΤ,
A.
Paris,
1803.
origo
et natura,
Le Décret de Memphis,
Paris, 1905.
ΒΙΚΟΗ,
5. Sur quelques groupes héroglyphiques,
Paris, 1848.
On the lost book of Chacremon on hieroglyphics,
London, 1850.
An introduction to the study of the Egyptian
hieroglyphs, London, 1857.
Decree of Canopus, London, 1870.
The Greek inscription on the Rosetta
London, (date 9).
BRIERE, DE. Essai sur
le symbolisme
Stone,
antique
d Orient, Paris, 1847.
Brucscu, H. K.
Die Inschrift von
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Inscriptio
1851.
Rosettana
Bunce, E. A. WaLLIs.
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Rosette
Ieroglyphica,
(De-
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The Decrees of Memphis
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312
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Caussin,
N.
De Symbolica
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CuaBas,
F. J.
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de
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CHAMPOLLION,
J. F.
Lettre
ἃ M. Dacter,
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1822.
Précis du systéme néroglyphique, Paris, 1824.
[A revised and enlarged edition of this work appeared
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égyptienne, Paris, 1843.
Cory, A. T.
The Meroglyphics
of Horapollo
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DITTENBERGER, W.
O”tentis graect inscriptiones
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DULAURIER, E.
1852.
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ERMAN, J. P. A.
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Entzfferung
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GREPPO, J. G. Honore.
Essat sur systéme hiéroglyphique de M. Champollion, Paris, 1829.
GrorF, W. Les deux versions démotiques du décret
de Canope, Paris, 1888.
Le décret de Canope, Paris, 1891.
GuLyANov,
I. A.
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sur
les hiéroglyphes
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HARTLEBEN,
H.
Champollion:
313
sein Leben
und
sein Werk, Berlin, 1906.
Hess, J.J.
Der Demotische Teil der Dreisprachigen
Inscrift von
Hincks, E.
Rosette,
Strassburg,
1902.
On the true date of the Rosetta Stone,
Dublin, 1841.
An attempt to ascertain the number, names and
powers of the . . . Egyptian Alphabet,
Dublin, 1848.
HoRApPOLLo, N.
CONRAD.
See Cory, A. T., and LEEMANS,
IDELER, J. L.
Hermapion, Leipzig, 1841.
JANNELLI, ὦ.
KIRCHER, A.
Tabulae Rosettanae, Naples, 1830.
Obeliscus Pamphilius, Rome, 1650.
Oedipus Aegypttacus, Rome, 1652-1654.
Obelisct Aegyptiact, Rome, 1666.
Sphinx mystagoga, Amsterdam, 1676.
KraprotH, J. H. Lettre. sur la découverte
hiéroglyphes aerologiques, Paris, 1827.
des
Seconde lettre, Paris, 1827.
Examen critique, Paris, 1832.
KoSEGARTEN,
J. G. L.
De prisca Aegyptiorum
litteratura, Vimar, 1828.
KRALL, J. Demotische Lesestticke, Vienna,
Lacour,
P.
Fragmens,
LEEMANS, CONRAD.
Bordeaux,
1903.
1821.
AHorapollinis Nilot hierogly-
phica, Amsterdam,
1835.
LeccE, G. F. The history of the transliteration of
Egyptian, London, 1902.
314
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C.
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sur
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lutshté
actuelle des hiéroglyphes d’Horapollon, Paris,
1838.
Lepsius,
R.
Ueber
die in Philae aufgefundene
Republikation des Dekretes von Rosette,
Leipzig, 1847.
Das bilingue Dekret von Kanopus, Berlin,
1866.
Das Sothisdatum, Leipzig, 1868.
Die Kalenderreform, Leipzig, 1869.
LETRONNE, J. A. Inscription grecque de Rosette,
Paris, 1840.
Manarry,
J. P.
The Rosetta Stone, Washington,
1902.
MaAHLER,
E.
Das Dekret von Kanopus,
London,
1893.
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PaLIn, N.G.
Essai sur les hiéroglyphes, Weimar,
1804.
De l'étude des hiéroglyphes, Paris, 1812.
Nouvelles recherches, Florence, 1830.
PAUTHIER,
J. P. G.
Sinico-Aegyptiaca,
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1842.
PIERRET, P.
Le décret trilingue de Canope, Paris,
1881.
PLEYTE,
W.
Zur
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der
Hueroglyphen-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
REINISCH,
5. L.,
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315
RoeEsLerR,
E.
R.
Die
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1866.
RENOUF, P. LE Pace.
London, 1859.
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REVILLOUT,
Etude
EuGhNE.
Uhlemann,
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I.
Il
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E. bE.
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ἃ M.
de Saulcy,
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1848.
Sacy,
A. J. SILVESTRE DE.
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au
Cuitoyen
Notice [a criticism of works by Champollion
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SALT, H.
Essay, London, 1825.
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Analyse grammaticale, Paris, 1836.
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Analyse grammatical du
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316
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Urkunden des aegyptischen Altertums, Bd. II,
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INDEX
In
the
transliteration
of
Oriental
proper
names
and
words,
H
represents a sharp but smooth guttural aspirate; T is a strongly
articulated palatal T; 5 is a strongly articulated 5, something like
ss in hiss; K is a strongly articulated guttural k; an apostrophe
before a letter (e.g. ’A) is the spiritus lenis of the Greeks, and an
inverted comma (e.g. ‘A) is a strong guttural, like the Hebrew y,
which is unpronounceable by Europeans.
Long vowels are marked
by a circumflex.
Abt Suwér, 296.
Al-Kahira,
Adelphoi, the brother and sister
gods, Ptolemy II and his Queen,
Alphabet, Champollion’s
glyphic, 224.
Hiero-
Alphabet,
Coptic,
in
use,
Alphabet,
Hieroglyphic,
now
in
Young’s
Demotic,
53, 62, 88, 105, 117.
Aeropos,
father
of Ptolemy
the
priest, 299.
Aetos, father of Netos, 53.
Aetos, priest of Alexander, 53.
Ageb, the god of the Inundation,
1.6. Cairo,
247.
18.
now
use, 245.
Alphabet,
Plate IX.
the Flood-god of Egypt, 184.
Ahmad Bey Kemal, 103, 296.
Aiatus (Aetos), father and son,
105.
Alphabetic hieroglyphs, 197.
Alphabetic values, 205.
Akerblad, the Swede, an early
decipherer, 76, 197, 188, 200,
201, 214, 218, 22%
Akh-t, Akhet, first season of the
Egyptian Year, 91, 122, 243.
Al-Ashraf Kansth Al-Ghiiri, 21.
Amélineau
Aleppo, 194.
Alexander the
229;
Great, 30, 177,
the decipherment of his
name, 200, 223.
House
of, 18:
Alexander,
the
Alexandria, 82.
Alexandria, 17, 18, 19, 20, 56, 177,
182.
Alexandria, capitulation of, 23.
Alexandria, library of, 179.
Alexandria, the priests freed from
annual journey to, 56.
Ameilhon,
Prof.
“‘Citoyen,”
22,
50.
quoted, 17.
Amen, great god of Thebes, 37.
Amen of Grb, or Gerb, 275.
Amen-Ra, the Sun-god of Egypt,
176.
Amenhetep
III, King of Egypt,
219.
Ammian
Marcellin,
his
Greek
translation of an obelisk of
Rameses II, 182.
Amnesty, a general, proclaimed by
Ptolemy V, 57, 111.
‘Amr
ibn
al-‘As,
conqueror
Egypt for the Khalifah
of
‘Umar
(‘Omar), 184.
An, a city in the Delta, 297.
Anastasi, Signor, his papyri in the
British Museum,
227.
INDEX
318
Aneb-Hedj-t,
name
Wall,” a | Babylonian writing, 40, 176.
See
Bahistfin Inscription of Darius I,
and Balance of the
40, 202, 241.
“White
of Memphis,
Men-Nefer
Two Lands.
113.
Annobairah = Al-Nobairah, a village near Damanhitr, where a
duplicate
text
of the
Rosetta
Stone was found, p. 39f.
Ant, 38.
Antiochus, King, 301, 302, 303,304.
Anubis (Anpu), jackal-headed god
of the dead, 209.
Apellaios,
a Macedonian
month
=
Copt. Tybi = December, 254.
Apis, the Bull-god of Memphis, 37,
41, 60, 61, 209, 255.
Apis, the Living,
115.
Aplis = Apellaios, 266.
Apollonides,
son
of
Moschion,
Bailey, Mr. J., 192.
Baillet, M., 103.
Balance
of the Two
Lands,
103.
See Memphis and Men-Nefer.
Ball, the Rev. C. J., 196.
Bankes, Mr. J. W., his obelisk of
Ptolemy IX, 203.
Baq-t (Egypt), 108, 117.
Barthélemy,
J. J., 191, 202, 219.
Basire, J., the engraver,
Bast, the Cat-goddess,
197.
37, 272,
273, 288.
Behutt (Edft), 297.
Berenice, decipherment
name, 205, 223.
of
the
priest of Alexander, 254.
Ap-t, the temple of Karnak, 244.
Berenice, Euergetes, 53.
Berenice, Princess, death of, 261.
Arabs,
Berenice, Queen, 37.
Bethelea, 301.
Bevan, Mr. E., 51, 254, 301.
Enblevavhesra:
19, 185.
Areia, daughter of Diogenes,
the
Kanephoros, 53.
Arsenal of rebels, 58.
Arsinoé, daughter of Cadmus, 128.
Arsinoé Philadelphus, 36, 53, 254.
Arsinoé Philopator, 53.
Artaba, a measure of capacity, 60.
Artemesios,
month
of =
Paophi,
298.
Arundale and Bonomi,
Antiquities of, 51.
Gallery of
Arura, a land measure,
60.
Asia, 253.
Assyrians, 300, 304.
(Syene, Séwéneh),
177.
Atem, god of the setting sun, 36.
Athlophoros, bearer of the prize of
victory, 53.
Augustus, the Emperor, 182.
Autocrator,
name,
decipherment
188, 223.
Avenue of Sphinxes, 30.
Sir R., 27.
Birch, τ. 9 21,5179, δὲ, 1904,
227, 246, 252.
Birthday of Horus, 305.
Boeckh, Dr., 50.
Bolbitine, arm of Nile of, 17, 19.
Bolzani, G. P. V., 186.
Book of the Dead, 174, 177.
Asher, 1.6. Syria, 269.
Aswan
Bickerton,
of the
Bouchard,
discoverer
of the
Rosetta Stone, 21.
Bouriant, V., 103.
Boussard, General, 20, 21.
Bread of Berenice, 265, 296.
Brugsch), re
Hy 77 ΤΌ, 2190,
252.
Bubastis, 176, 259, 288.
Buckinghamshire, Lord, 28.
Burton, his Excerpta, 227.
Busiris, Nome of, 58.
Byssus of Pharaoh, 57, 60.
INDEX
Cadmus,
128.
father
of
Arsinoé,
Caesar, 208.
Caesar, decipherment of the name
Of, 225.
Caesars, the, 178.
Cairo (Al-Kahira), 18.
Camp, the Egyptian, in Syria,
301 f.
Canal of Darius I from the Nile
to the Red Sea, 175.
Canon Chronicus, 181.
Canopus, 35, 178.
Canopus, Decree of, honouring
Ptolemy III, 254 f.
Cape of Good Hope, 18.
Capitulations, Treaty of the, 23.
Carchemish, 193, 194.
319
Conder. Col., and the Hittite
inscriptions, 197.
Consonants in Egyptian, 246.
Contenau,
his Hittite
Bibliography, 197.
Copt = Egyptian Christians, 183,
184.
Coptic language, 184, 230, 241.
Coptic literature, 241.
Coptos in Upper Egypt, 184.
Copts, 17, 184.
Cory, A. T., 181.
Cowley, Dr., and Hittite decipherment, 197.
Criminals, release of, 108.
Cuno, 58.
Cyprus, 257, 284.
Carlisle, Nicholas, 24.
Cartouche, 191.
See Zoega.
Cavalry, the Egyptian, 58.
Damanhar, the Stele, 38, 39.
Damietta, 18, 103.
Caylus, A. C. P. de, 190.
Chabas, F., on the Rosetta Stone,
Daphnae (Daffanah), 177.
102, 207.
Chaeremon
librarian
180, 181.
the
of
Naucratis,
at Alexandria,
I 79,
Champollion, Figeac, 216, 217.
Champollion,
le Jeune,
20,
208;
his Egyptian alphabet, 224.
Chaptal “‘ Citoyen,’’ 76.
Chinese language, 197.
Choiakh, the month of, 244.
Christianity, introduction of, into
Egypt, 182.
Christians, the Egyptian, 1.6.
obelisks in, 182,
Clement of Alexandria, 180.
Cleopatra, decipherment of the
name
205.
Decree of Canopus (Ptolemy III),
178.
Decree of Memphis (Ptolemy IV),
296.
Decree of Memphis
178.
(Ptolemy V),
Delta, the Egyptian, 17, 18.
Demetria,
127.
Demotic writing, 41, 53.
Denderah, temple of, 198.
Determinatives,
230 f.
Egyptian, list of,
Determinatives, how used, 235.
Copts, 153.
Circus Maximus,
187.
Darius I, the Great, 40, 175, 202,
of, 203, 208, 222.
College of the House of Life, 106.
Combe, Mr. Taylor, 33.
Diodorus Siculus, 19, 179.
Diogenes, 53.
Dios, the monthof (Oct.-Nov.), 255.
Dittenberger, W., 50.
Divine Legation of Moses, 190.
Domitian, Emperor, obeliskof,188.
Drumanon, W., the historian, 50.
INDEX
320
Dugua, General, 22.
Du Theil, “‘ Citoyen,” 23, 30, 195.
Egypt, conquest of, by ‘Amr ibn
al-As, 18;
Greek name of
(Ageb), 183.
Eirene, 53.
Elamite, 176.
Elephants in battle, 302.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Young’s
article in Supplement of, 206.
Epagomenal
days, the five, 243.
Epiphanes, title of Ptolemy
213.
Epiphi, the month of, 244.
Erman,
V,
Gender, expression of, 209.
George III, King, 30.
Germanicus Caesar in Egypt, 181.
Gersa, 187.
Gliddon, Mr., 227.
Goodwin,
C., Egyptologist,
227.
Gordon, A., 189.
Grappo, J. G. N., 226.
Grb, 275.
Great Green Sea, III.
Greek language in Egypt, 177.
Greeks, 19,123,180.
Groff, Demotologist,
Grotefend,
See Jonians.
252.
decipherer
of Cunei-
form, 205.
Guignes, C. L. J. de, 191, 205.
Dr. A., 105.
Ermé, country of, 195.
Eucharistos,
title of Ptolemy
V,
53, 105.
Euergetai, a title of Ptolemy III
and his Queen, 53, 62, 88, 117.
Eusebius, the historian, 179.
Eye of Ra (Hathor), 292.
Feast of Lamps, 305.
Festival of the Tail, 52.
Festivals, 214; thirty-year, 52.
Figeac (Champollion), 216.
Fist, colossal granite, 30.
Five days, the epagomenal,
Flood-god (Ageb), 184.
244.
Fontana, Italian architect, 187.
Fort, St. Julian, 21, 25.
Franks, Sir Wollaston, 196.
Hadrian,
decipherment
of
the
name, 223.
Hap-men, sarcophagus of, 29.
Hamath, 194.
Hammer-Purgstall, 192.
Harris, Mr., H.B.M.’s Consul at
Alexandria, 21.
Hartleben, H., 226.
Hathor, goddess, 209.
Hathyr, the month of, 244.
Haui-nebu (the Ionians or, Greeks),
123.
Hebrew language, 193.
Hecataeus of Miletus, 19, 179.
Hekaptah, “‘ House of the Ka of
Ptah,” 184.
Helios (Ra), 52.
Fréret, M., 190.
Hephaistos, 52.
Herakleion, 261.
Hermes (Thoth), the Great Great,
Gaaugaau (mysteries of Isis), 293.
Galland “‘ Citoyen,’’ 22.
Garb, Amen of, 290.
57, 59.
Herodotus,
Garth, General, 32.
Gauthier, H., 296.
IRESEE WG Men 7k
Heyne, C. G., 33, 50.
Gebelin, C. de, 190.
Hieratic writing, 41.
179.
Her-smai-taui,
38, 297.
INDEX
Hievoglyphica, 186.
Hieroglyphika, 180.
Hieroglyphs, Egyptian, the
cipherment of, 24, 225 f.
Hincks, Rev. Dr. E., 227.
Hittite inscriptions,
Hobart, Lord, 31.
Homer, 179.
de-
193.
Homophones,
230.
Horapollon,
180, 181.
Horse, the, 308.
Horus of Mesen, 297.
Horus, son of Isis and Osiris, 59.
Horus, the Living,
115.
Horus Ra, 104.
House of Alexander (Alexandria),
82.
House of Life, College of the, 106,
Kam-t (Egypt), 117.
Kanephoros, 53.
Karnak, 30, 244.
Kash (Kish, Nubia), 175.
Kefth-t, 284.
Kefto, 284.
Kenset (Lower Nubia), 175.
Kerpiais, 124.
Khar (Syria), 269.
Khargah, Oasis, of, 176.
Kheta (Hittites), 226.
Khonsu, the Moon-god,
Khor (Syria), 300, 304.
Kikellia, 264.
Kircher, Athanasius, 187, 197.
Klaproth, J. H., 226.
Koch, J. G., 190.
Kom al-Hisn, 252.
Prof., 219.
Kur’an,
Hutchinson, General Lord, 23, 25.
Kash,
Iemhetep, god of medicine, 52.
Images of the gods brought back
to Egypt, 304.
India, 18, 228.
Infantry, Egyptian, 58.
Institut National, 22.
Inundation,
244.
Krall, Dr. J., 77, 252.
279, 293.
Humboldt,
321
the annual
184.
Ionians (Greeks),
nebu.
Irdab, 114.
Nile,
58,
18.
115.
Lacour, P., 192.
Lady of Virgins (Berenice), 278.
Lance, the Macedonian, 297.
Leemans, C., 181.
Lenoir, A., 192.
ΤΕΥ
ΝΜ, 25;
Le Roy, M., 26.
Lepsius, 50, 102, 226.
Letronne, J. A., 50.
93.
See Haui-
Lettre ἃ M. Dacier, 220.
Library, the Alexandrian,
Liturgy, the Coptic, 185.
179.
Islam, 185.
Lord One, 116.
Lucas, P., 189.
Luxor, 199.
Isma’il Pasha, 185.
Lycopolis, Lykopolis, 58, 214.
Isis, 209.
Isis Hathor,
36.
Maat, goddess, 36.
Jablonski, 190, 197.
Jensen, Dr., 197.
Madras, the ship, 27.
Mahaffy, J. P., 50, 252.
INDEX
322
Mahmudtyah Canal, 19.
Manetho,
Napata, 174.
Napoleon, 20, 22, 195.
178.
Marcel ‘‘ Citoyen,”’ 22.
Mark, Saint, in Alexandria,
Marshall, Sir J., 189.
18.
of rebels,
177.
E., 36.
Mekheir, 53.
Mekhir, 104.
Memphis, 3, 35, 41, 59, 184,
21.
Nekht-Her-Hebit,
Nephthys,
292.
241,
290.
Memphis,
Naville,
Necho, 21.
Nectanebo,
113.
Mechir, 244.
Medes, 304.
Mediterranean Sea, 111, 284.
Mehent,
Naucratis,
Navy, 56.
Maspero, Sir G., 252.
Massacre
Ι
29.
209.
New Year Festival, 288.
Niebuhr, C., 189.
ΝΘ 19; 56; 112.
Nile-flood, z.e. annual inundation,
268 ; alow Nile-flood, 256.
Nile-Red Sea Canal,
decrees
of
the
priest-
hood at, 49, 296.
Menant, 197.
175.
Norden, F. L., 189.
Norris, Edwin, 241.
Nub, Nubia, 105, 185, 228.
Menekrateia, 254.
Nubayrah,
Men-Nefer (Memphis), 80.
Nubians,
Menou, General, 25.
Menouf, 26.
Mercati, M., 187.
Numerals, Egyptian, 208.
Meroitic writing, 175
Mesen, 38, 297.
Mesore, 64, 120, 244.
Milverton,
Oasis of Khargah, 176.
Obelisci Aegyptiaci, 189.
198.
Mnevis, 60, 255, 262.
Month of Amenhetep, 244.
Month of Karnak, 244.
Month of Khonsu, 244.
Month of the Valley, 244.
Months, the Egyptian, 214;
Macedonian,
103.
256.
Obeliscus Pamphilius, 189.
Obelisk of Domitian, 188.
Obelisk of Philae, 203.
Obelisk, the Flaminian, 187.
the
243.
Mophta, 188.
Mordtmann, Dr. A. D., 195.
Moschion, 254.
Obelisk, the Pamphylian, 188.
Obelisks, 30 ; re-erected in Rome,
186.
Oedipus Aegyptiacus, 189.
‘Omar,
(‘Umar)
the
Khalifah,
Muhammad ‘Ali, canal of, 19
Mu‘izz, Khalifah, 18.
184.
Ombos,
103.
Osburn,
Mr., 227.
Miiller, C., 50.
Mummies of sacred animals, 303.
Osiris, 188, 209.
Osiris of Pegut, 290.
Mummification, 182.
Museum Criticism, 200.
Muslims, 19.
Osiris, periplus of, 264.
Ordinal numbers, Egyptian, 209.
Origny, F. A. L. θ᾽, 190.
INDEX
323
Pachon, 244.
Pierret, P., 252:
Pahlin, N. G., 192, 197.
Pi-Hahiroth, 36, 38.
Pinches, Dr., 195.
Pithom, 36, 176.
Pithom Stele, 296.
Panopolis, 180.
Paophi, 64, 121, 244.
Papera, Mr., 31.
Pjeyn-Guti, 275.
Pliny, 58.
Plumptre, Prebendary,
P-neter-peri, 53.
Pn-Guti, 267.
Paris, 22, 23.
Pasanufer, 301.
Pa-Tem, 176.
Payni, 244.
Peacock, G., 199.
Pegut, Peguti, 282, 296.
Pococke,
50.
R., 189.
Pehlevi language, 203.
Polyphones, 230.
Peiser, Dr., 197.
Pelusium, 301.
Penn, Granville, 31.
Per-Qehrt, 36, 38.
Persia, 256, 268, 283.
Porson, Prof., 34, 51.
Press-gang, 56, 82, 110.
Prodromus Copticus, 188.
Psalms of David, 197.
Pschent, Pskhent, 63, 64.
Ptah, 52, 209; temple of, 41.
Ptah Tenn, 105.
Persian language, 40, 176.
Persians,
176.
Per-t, 53, 124, 243.
Pettigrew, Dr., 227.
Phaenebythis, 180.
Phamenoth, 244, 245.
Ptah-hetep, 246.
Ptolemies, the, 177 ; coins of the,
Plates XII and XIII.
Pharaoh
name, 200, 203.
Ptolemy II, 36.
Ptolemy III, 35, 37, 254 ff.
Necho,
Ptolemy,
21.
Pharaoh, Pharaohs, 20, 174, 177,
2ῈΖ2, 231:
Pharaohess, 274, 275, 300.
Pharmuthi, 244.
Philae, 203.
Philammon, 255.
Philinos, 53.
Philip, decipherment of the name
ΟἿ, 222.
Philippus, 180, 181.
Philopatores, 52, 62, 88, 105, 117.
Phoenicia, 257, 304.
Phoenician language, 193.
Phoenicians, 300.
Phonetic complements,
Phre, Phra, 299.
Phylacteries, 64.
230.
decipherment
of
the
Ptolemy IV, 35, 37, 38, 296 ἔ.
Ptolemy V, 23, 35, 38, 42, 52 lf.
Ptolemy IX, obelisk of, 203.
Ptolemy, son of Aeropos, 299.
Ptrumis (Ptolemy), 299.
Pturmis
(Ptolemy),
270, 271.
Pyrtha, 53.
Qebti,
184.
Ra, 41, 209.
Radicals, Chinese,
191.
Phylarch, 259, 287.
Piankhi, 174.
Raffineau “‘ Citoyen,”’ 22.
Ram, head of, 30.
Rameses II, 182, 226.
Piazza del Popolo, 187.
Rameses III, 240.
INDEX
324
Sebennytus,
Raper, Matthew, 31.
Raphia, 301.
Rashid, 17.
Rashit, 17.
Rawlinson, Sir Henry,
Ready, Mr. R., 194.
Red Sea, 18, 176.
Rehent, 291.
178.
Sekhmit, 30.
Sektt Boat, 275, 290.
Serapeum, 176.
Sesheta, 37.
194.
Retnu (Eastern Syria), 284.
Set Festival, 52, 299.
Set of Nub, 103, 298.
Sethe, Dr., 39, 78, 103, 253.
ΘΟΌΙ ΠΥ 87.
Seyfarth, G., 226.
Revillout, 77, 252.
Shalif, 176.
Rhoda, 299.
Ricardi, F., 52.
Sharpe, S., 103, 181, 252.
ShemiAit priestesses, 279, 294.
Roesler, E. R., 251.
Shemu
Reinisch, S. L., 251.
Rosetta
20;
Stone,
discovery of, 17,
taken to Cairo,
22;
taken
by the British, 23; brought to
London, 24; published by the
Society of Antiquaries, 35; its
contents
described,
35,
41;
inscriptions on, 51, 76, 124.
Rouse Boughton,
(Summer), 64, 143.
Ships, 58.
Rome, 186.
Rosetta, 17.
Shu-R4, 145.
Sixtus V. Pope, 187.
Skhan, 84.
Society of Antiquaries
Rosetta Stone, 24 f.
and
the
Soteres, 53, 62, 88, 105, 117.
Sothis (Sirius, the dog-star),
287, 288.
272,
Sottas, H., 296.
Sir W., 199.
Sphinx, ram-headed, 30.
Sphinx Mystagoga, 189.
Saint John Lateran, 187.
Sais, 176.
Spiegelberg, W., 78, 103, 252, 298.
Spohn, F. A. W., 226.
Spring, 244.
Spt-t, (Sothis), 272.
Stephanus of Byzantium, 20.
Sakhliin, Mosque of, 19.
Strabo, 58.
Sakkarah, 41.
Sallier of Aix, 226.
Sanskrit, 241.
Strack, Mr. R., 50.
Stromateis, 180.
Succoth, 36, 38, 297.
Sidan, 185.
Suez, 176.
Summer, 244.
Sun-god, 41.
Saulcy, L. F. J. C. de, 77.
Susian language, 40, 176.
Sayce, Prof. A. H., 195.
Suwés (Suez), 176.
Syllabic hieroglyphs, 201.
Sacy, Silvestre
200,
201,
de, 76, 197,
202,
214,
216,
198,
217,
218, 221:
Sallier Papyri, 176, 227.
Salmina (Cyprus), 269.
Salvolini, F., 76, 226.
San al-Hagar, 251.
Sbinai (Cyprus), 284.
Schumacher,
J. H., 1go.
Seasons, the three Egyptian, 3.
Syria, 257.
Syrians, 256, 300, 304.
INDEX
325
Tacitus, 181.
Wadi Tiimftlat, 176.
Talismans, 300.
Wall of Alexander
10.
Tall al-Maskhfitah, 37, 176, 296.
Tall Dafannah.
Warburton, Bishop, 190.
Watson, Rev. Stephen, 31, 196.
Weidenbach, Herr, 251.
Weissbach, Dr., 176.
Ta-Mert (Egypt), 104, 290.
Tanis, 251.
Tarkondémos, 196.
Tarkondimotos, 196.
Tarku-timme, 195.
Tarrik-timme,
Tawa, 58.
Weston,
Mr., 33.
White Wall (Memphis), 106, 113.
195.
Taylor, Maj-Gen.
(Alexandria),
Winter, 244.
World Ocean, 184.
Writing, cyriological, 180.
H., 24.
Telemachus, 127.
Tem, 36.
Thebes, 18r.
Thekut, 36, 38.
Theodosus I, 180.
Writing, demotic, 40, 41, 173.
Writing, enchorial, 173, 180.
Writing, epistolographic, 180.
Thmuis, 58.
Thoth, god of writing, 36, 40, 57,
65, 174, 209.
Thoth, the month of, 214, 244.
Thothmes III, 187.
Tis, 267.
Tjeku, 297.
Tomos, 21.
Tun, 21."
Writing,
Writing,
Writing,
Writing,
Writing,
Writing,
Greek, 40, 41.
hieratic, 173, 180.
hieroglyphic, 173, 180.
phonetic, 230.
pictorial, 230.
symbolical, 180.
Writing, tropical, 180.
Xandikos, 53.
Turin papyri, 225.
Tybi, 244.
Yakit quoted, 17.
Year, Egyptian, the three seasons
Tychsen, T. Ch., rgo.
Tzetzes, J., 179.
of, 214.
Year, the Polar, 243.
‘Young, Dr. T., his life and works,
Uhlemann, M. A., το.
Usr-ka-Ra, 105, 107.
102, 198, 202.
Vasco da Gama, 18.
Vater, Prof., 245.
Vineyards, 60.
Vocabulary of Dr. Young,
Vowels, Egyptian, 246.
210.
Zend, 203, 241.
Zeus, 52.
Zoan, 251.
Zoega, 191, 194,
219.
202,
204,
205,
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